Regulus, A Thin Veneer Novel 3
by NorJC
Summary: STB5-After the Minbari attack on the Regulus colonies, the dark past of the Valkyrie's captain could threaten both the love of his life and Starfleet. This story uses Albert Green's "A Thin Veneer" TOS Movie era universe with his permission.
1. Chapter 1

**Title: "Regulus" **

**Author: NorJC **

**In association with: Albert Green Jr.'s "A Thin Veneer Universe"**

**Contact: **

**Rating: T+**

**Date began: September 19, 2010**

-COPYRIGHT/DISCLAIMER NOTICE-

**NOTICE: THIS STORY MAY BE DISTRIBUTED FREE OF CHARGE BUT MUST NOT BE SOLD OR EXCHANGED FOR FINANCIAL RETURN IN ANY FORM. **

"_Star Trek", "Star Trek: The Next Generation", "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine", _and_ "Star Trek: Voyager" _and_ "Star Trek: Enterprise" _and all related_ Star Trek_ related material, its characters and certain technological devices and/or references to such, from the television shows and movies, may be or are registered trademarks of, and may be or are copyrighted by Paramount Studios and whatever corporation it may or may not be owned by.

No studio is responsible for the content of this story. Other names and additional characters are the creation of the author who is solely responsible for them as such.

**THIS STATEMENT MUST ACCOMPANY THE STORY 'Regulus' IF DISTRIBUTED. THIS STORY IS FREE OF CHARGE AND MAY NOT BE SOLD OR EXCHANGED FOR FINANCIAL RETURN IN ANY FORM. THIS DEDICATION MUST ACCOMPANY ANY DISTRIBUTION OF THIS STORY. **

**Dedication:**

**Both my lovely bride of nearly 20 years and our children have allowed me to hide in our office and write in relative peace. As I have said before and shall always say again, thank you, my beloveds. I also would like to thank Albert who galvanized me to get off my duff and start writing again with his wonderful stories, 'A Thin Veneer', its supplements and his 'A Universe of Change', 'Those who Stand' and 'the Evolutions-Ruination war series' and who helped me edit this story. I'd also like to thank my beta reader Ruth. **

**This story is the third in a series of short stories and novellas that focus on the life and times of the crew of the **_**Constellation**_**-class, **_**USS**__**Valkyrie**_**, NCC-2590, a single Federation starship engulfed in the war encompassed by the 'A Thin Veneer' ("ATV") series. I heartily recommend reading 'A Thin Veneer' in connection with this novella about the **_**Valkyrie**_** and her valiant crew.**

Prologue

_"This is the Emergency Broadcast System. All trivideo programming has been interrupted,"_ the announcer said, _"to bring you this important announcement from the President of the United Federation of Planets."_

Moments after the UFP symbol faded from view, President Ta'w could be seen seated behind his desk. "My fellow citizens," he said, his voice somber yet strong, "three days ago, all communication with Starbase 25 and the Regulus star system inexplicably ceased. In response, we engaged in obtaining information from long-range tracking stations to determine the cause. Unfortunately, independent reports from starships, belonging to both the civilian sector and Starfleet, have confirmed our worst fears. It is with the deepest regret that I must inform you that Starbase 25 has been destroyed and the population centers of Regulus III have been virtually exterminated."

The President glanced down at his PADD for a moment then said, "Three colonies on Regulus IV were also destroyed and we have yet to find any survivors. During this unprovoked attack on the Federation, the frigate USS _Taymon_ and the cruiser USS _Mako_, engaged the enemy. They managed to destroy one vessel and severely damaged another before the _Taymon_ was destroyed by a superior force numbering twenty-one enemy vessels. The _Mako_ was forced to withdraw but not before she was able to destroy another enemy battleship."

"Two days ago near the Klingon border, the Empire lost contact with four Klingon patrol vessels and a convoy traveling through the former Neutral Zone between our two territories. This is the same area where we first encountered the Minbari. The Minbari are a bipedal race located on the other side of the galaxy. Two of their ships managed to chase Humans from that part of the galaxy to our area of space through a sort of subspace channel. When the Minbari attacked the USS _Enterprise A_ and_ Qo'noS One_, the battlecruiser that ferried the Klingon Chancellor to Earth several months ago, the contact was disastrous for the Minbari; they lost two ships. During that initial engagement, we captured several of the Minbari before their comrades managed to activate their vessels' self-destruct devices.

During the interrogations of these prisoners, along with information provided by the people they had pursued, we have learned that the Minbari Federation is at war with these other Humans and their government called the Earth Alliance. The Earth Alliance operates from a world which is an exact duplicate of the Alpha Quadrant's Earth. These refugees insist the Minbari intend to exterminate all Humans in the galaxy and remarks by the captured Minbari appear to confirm this belief. Right now, this war is happening over sixty-eight thousand light-years away from Federation space."

"As for the survivors of Regulus, Starfleet is on the scene conducting search and rescue missions, providing relief, and performing security operations. As of now, we have found approximately three thousand refugees out of a population of twenty-seven million, five hundred thirty-three sentient beings. I can assure you that aid is being rushed from all across the Federation and several starships are in the area to provide assistance under the command of Jason Tynen, the captain of the USS _Valkyrie_. Captain Tynen's ship is one of the new _Constellation_-class star cruisers. She is one of the most advanced and highly versatile vessels in the fleet. Captain Tynen is also one of Starfleet's most able starship commanders. I am told he has a keen tactical mind."

Then the President's eyes narrowed down to slits as he stared into the lens of the camera. "There were seventeen thousand people on Starbase 25. There were more than twenty-seven million on the Regulus colonies. We've lost the gallant crew of the _Taymon_ while the Klingon Empire lost the crews of four of its starships along with several merchant vessels. This wanton and senseless mass murder of Federation and Klingon Empire citizens shall not go unchallenged. To this end, the Klingon Empire and the United Federation of Planets have declared war on the Minbari Federation. Both governments intend to prosecute this war to the point the Minbari Federation will no longer be able to attack anyone with impunity. In closing, please stay tuned for more information concerning the Regulus colonies and any announcements regarding our response to this infamous and barbaric act by the Minbari. Thank you for your attention, my fellow citizens, and please send your prayers and well-wishes to those who have suffered so horribly from this dreadful act of wanton destruction. Good day."

_"This has been the Emergency Broadcast System. We shall now return you to your regularly scheduled programming."_

#

USS _Valkyrie_, Regulus Star System

He walked into his somber quarters with the slow steps of a man old and weary. It took a few moments for Jason Tynen's eyes to acclimate to the dimly lit room. When he was finally able to recognize the shape of his desk chair, he flopped down onto it. Fixing his gaze at the scarred planet below through his transparent aluminum window, he sighed heavily while he pressed a button on his desk's control console.

Then he began to record his confession.

_Captain's personal Log. Stardate 9-5-2 . . . 9-5-2-4 point . . . 2?_

"Computer!" he snapped, his annoyance plainly evident in his voice. "What day is it?"

"Monday, Stardate 9-5-2-4 point 3," the pleasantly feminine artificial voice stated.

"It's only been a week," he whispered. Then, more forcefully, he added, "Resume log entry."

_I need to deal with this. I have to make some sort of sense out of this mess . . . I can't tell anyone else . . . not Vox, especially not V'Lar . . . with her kind heart, she'd forgive me for what I've done. . . she'd forgive them . . . but we don't deserve her absolution. Maybe if I talk about it . . . maybe I can figure out how to protect my crew, protect her from the other life I lived so long ago._

_I suppose it all started a week ago. It was two days after we'd warped into the Regulus system. Admiral Mendez had ordered me to take command of the relief operations on Regulus III. It was the only colony that needed one; the population of Regulus IV had been completely eradicated by the Minbari. Everyone was on edge; we'd been told that the Klingons were sending a task force to assist at Regulus. No one knew if the Minbari might double back or if they'd return to their side of the galaxy._

_On that day, we'd come to the end of our first Incident Command meeting on board the _Val_ with the three captains in charge of tactical, logistic, and medical operations. I was a little thirsty. So, I poured V'Lar a glass of water before I decided to pour one for myself. _

Chapter 1

"Captain Tynen?"

He turned in his seat to regard the Vulcan captain of the _Liberty_-class freighter, USS _Edmond Fitzgerald_. "Yes, Captain Tevik?"

"Although I assume we have exhausted the agenda for our meeting, I request your forbearance regarding a sensitive matter. Unfortunately, the matter concerns your behavior toward your first officer."

Tynen shot a puzzled look at his fellow captain. "My behavior, you say?"

"Yes, captain. It is improper for a male to provide water to any Vulcan female unless that male is offering to court and, ultimately, become her mate."

"What?" Captain Antonio Silva, the master of the _Miranda_-class cruiser, USS _Mako_ snapped. "You mean to tell us that offering a woman a glass of water signifies a man wants to marry her?"

Tevik nodded at them. "Even though you are human, you are most likely aware that Vulcan is a desert planet where water is quite scarce in comparison to your homeworld. On Vulcan, it is the obligation of a male to obtain water for his betrothed or mate. For any male who is not bonded to a female to act in such a manner is considered a serious breach of etiquette and, if the female is bonded to another, a challenge to that female's mate. Under those circumstances, a violent and, on occasion, lethal response is required on the part of her mate."

While Tynen considered the Vulcan captain's words, Captain Rebecca Hunter, M.D., the commander of the _Hippocrates_-class medical frigate, USS _Elizabeth Dehner_, snorted. "Oh, come now, Tevik! Are you saying Captain Tynen wants to 'marry' Commander V'Lar simply because he poured her a glass of water? Don't be ridiculous! She's a Vulcan and he's human, for God's sakes!" Tynen frowned at Hunter's words but said nothing while she continued to make her point. "Look, it's common for humans to offer someone a glass of water before serving themselves, no matter the sex of the other person. I mean, I poured a glass of water for both you and Captain Silva at the beginning of the meeting and I tell you, I certainly didn't think I agreed to marry either of you!"

"Actually-" Tynen began to say.

"In this case," V'Lar blurted out, interrupting him, "Captain Tynen was unaware of our customs, Captain Tevik. It was my error in failing to explain our ways to him. I ask forgiveness for my failure and in no way should the captain's courtesy be impugned against him."

The other Vulcan nodded graciously to her. "V'Lar, no apology is necessary on either party's part. Hopefully, Captain Tynen will avoid such mishaps in the future."

Tynen narrowed his eyes at the Vulcan captain. _Hey!_ the captain of the _Valkyrie_ protested inwardly. He almost gave Tevik a piece of his mind until V'Lar stared at him and he somehow heard her voice in his head. _'Jason, no!' _Startled, he shot a questioning look her way and said nothing.

Minutes later, after the meeting had been adjourned and the others had left the conference room, he turned to her. "Would you kindly tell me what that was all about?"

His Amazonian Vulcan regarded him with an inscrutable look for several moments before she said, "I believe Captain Tevik was concerned that some would assume we are engaged in an intimate relationship."

"Well, that assumption would be correct," he noted. Then he felt the grip of uncertainty when she silently regarded him and failed to say anything. "Wouldn't it?"

She appeared to ponder his question for several seconds before she said, "I believe so."

"You believe so?" he parroted as his eyes shot wide open. How could she say that after their night of romance in the Troyian High Tribune's garden?

He'd said he desired her and she'd said she thought they were 'compatible.' Then they'd shared several surprisingly, at least to him, passionate kisses. Afterwards, though, they'd not had a lot of time to explore the depths of their new relationship due to the Minbari attack on Regulus.

Now, he gazed deeply into her brown eyes and said, "V'Lar, help me out here. I thought we'd agreed to start dating."

"That is correct, Jason. However, Vulcans do not undertake 'dates' in the human manner. In most cases, Vulcans are telepathically linked at a young age to our betrothed who is chosen by our parents after consideration of how the betrothed will complement their child. If the link is terminated either intentionally or due to the death of a prospective mate prior to bonding, we are free to seek a new mate. In seeking a new mate, it is illogical for Vulcans to engage in an extended courtship once the couple has determined a romantic relationship between the pair is both viable and desirable."

"I see," he lied. Then he recalled what had flashed into his mind just after she'd apologized to that Vulcan-with-the-stick-shoved-up-his-butt. "Hey! Moments ago, when I intended to tell Tevik we were dating . . . did you flash a message into my mind?"

She glanced down at the floor for several seconds. Although it occurred rarely, over time, he'd learned that whenever she shied away from direct eye contact, she was embarrassed to admit she was clueless about something. Several seconds later, she looked him straight in the eye and said, "Yes. Apparently, my mind called out to yours."

He regarded her with a stunned look on his face. "How in the hell did that happen?"

She blinked twice then said, "I am uncertain." He fought down the urge to smirk; he knew it was troubling for any Vulcan to admit they simply had no idea how something had occurred. Then she added, "During the dance we shared at the Troyian High Tribune's manor, I sensed the change in your emotions when I held you in my arms. That was when I realized we have a bond."

Although he simply stared at her and said nothing, his guts felt like they'd twisted into knots. _Oh, crap!_ his mind screamed as he wondered whether she could submerge into the depths of his thoughts and study his dormant memories – his mother's disappearance; the enemy operatives he'd terminated; the love he'd once felt for Jezri Vox; a fantasy where he was naked with V'Lar in his quarters, kissing….

"I doubt I could encroach upon your thoughts," she said, startling him with a comment concerning what he'd just been thinking about. "Vulcans have found that humans are incapable of transmitting their thoughts to us outside of a meld. Even if you were capable of doing so, Vulcans would consider such an act an invasion of privacy."

As he tried to determine exactly how he was going to deal with this information, she softly added, "I would never harm you. Whatever impressions I glean from you shall always be between us."

He nodded. "I trust you, V'Lar. I just want to know when you were going to tell me about…this."

"After we had left Troyius, I had intended to study the possibility further and to discuss it with you; however, we have had little opportunity to do so due to our present circumstances." Well, that wasn't quite true, he noted to himself. He felt her fear in his mind and sensed she was concerned he'd want nothing to do with her. What she said, though, was, "I realized it would be a difficult conversation because I appreciate how much you value your privacy."

Now, he regarded her with a puzzled look. "So, if we share a bond, why did you stop me from setting Tevik straight? You're not ashamed of being with me, are you?"

At that, both of her eyebrows nearly arched toward the ceiling. Then she regarded him with a somber expression on her lovely face. "My Vulcan heart could never be ashamed of you, Jason." Then she extended the two fingers of her right hand toward him.

He glanced down at them for a moment. Then he briefly linked the matching fingers of his right hand with hers. He felt a small tingle race up the muscles of his arm while she shuddered slightly. When their fingers parted, he still reveled in the sensation of her. "I think we should explore this further, but for now, we need to mind the store. How about tonight? Meet me in my music room? Say 2000 hours?"

She clasped both hands behind her back in her customary manner and thrust her impressive bosom toward him. For the first time, he wondered whether her 'habit' was as inadvertent as he'd first believed.

A moment later, he was caught off guard when he sensed a teasingly coy sentiment from her flash into his mind. Meanwhile, her face simply expressed a look he'd categorized previously as 'bland bemusement,' while she proclaimed, "Your suggestion is acceptable, captain. I shall meet you there at 2000 hours."

He shot a quirky grin her way as they started for the door. "Then it's a date!"

In response, she sighed heavily and shot her 'why-in-Surak's-name-am-I-plagued-by-these-illogical-humans' look at him as they exited the conference room side-by-side.

#

_You know, I didn't like Tevik from the first time I'd laid eyes on him . . . I'd probably never would've . . . but no matter how bad he was, he hadn't deserved the crummy deal he'd gotten from the bottom of the deck._

_#_


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Moments later, the captain and his first officer strode onto the bridge. Almost immediately, Lt. Niznik Vox relinquished the captain's chair to Tynen. Then the joined Trill officer, Tynen's May/December lover when the Vox symbiont had been joined with a woman named Jezri, walked to his navigation console. Meanwhile, the captain took his seat while V'Lar's long legs carried her over to the science station near the turbo-lift entrance.

Currently, the bridge was manned by the Alpha shift. On the other side of the deck in-line with Vox's station, Ensign Lanei Rager operated her helm console. Behind the captain, Lt. Etana Mazan, the ship's Ktarian Tactical Officer, managed the functions on her panel.

Tynen then cleared his throat, drawing his crew's attention. "Vox…report."

"All systems are normal, captain."

He nodded and asked with a barely concealed snort, "What is the current status of the fleet?" Although an optimist by nature, even he'd admit it was quite a stretch to call the motley collection of in-system starships a 'fleet.' With the exception of the _Valkyrie_ and the _Miranda_-class _Mako_, his units consisted of two underpowered destroyers, a pair of frigates, a single perimeter action ship—the fleet's answer to the larger version of the Klingon Bird of Prey, an _Oberth_-class survey ship, two tiny long-range scouts, and a pair of Starfleet cargo vessels.

Then his musings were cut short by Vox when he reported, "The Light Brigade is holding station in the rings of Regulus VI under silent running protocols per your instructions."

Tynen smiled at Vox's play on words. The 'light' in question foreshadowed the brilliance resulting from the uncontrolled annihilation of matter with antimatter as the result of a photon torpedo barrage. Between them, the _Mako_, the _Soyuz_-class frigate _Billings_, the _Loknar_-class _Jezar_, and the _Oberth_-class _Copernicus_ could launch eighteen torpedoes in one volley, more than enough to destroy or cripple four of the big Minbari war cruisers.

"Amongst all that debris, they should be as hard to find as a needle in a haystack even if the Minbari's sensors are as good as ours," Chief Sharkey, the bridge support technician, observed.

"Let's hope so," Tynen said as he silently offered thanks to his old War College professor, the wily Acaltha, for the inspiration. "If they decide to come back and finish the job, I'm betting they won't know about Silva's flotilla until he blasts them straight to hell."

"Minbari . . . say hello to my lil' friends!" Vox drawled in a barely passable imitation of the character Scarface from an ancient Terran video they'd seen during the last movie night.

Tynen hid a smile when he sensed that V'Lar's boiling point had finally reached its limit. "Lt. Vox," the Vulcan drawled coolly, "if you have finished making a mockery of the superior thespian abilities of Alfredo James Pacino with your misguided attempt at so-called humor…"

Vox noticeably slumped in his seat at that. "Aye, sir," he grumbled.

"Please continue with your report, Vox."

"Yes, sir. The destroyers _Callisto_ and _Azrael_ are shadowing the _Nightingale_ and the _Dehner_ while the medical frigates maintain standard orbits above the colony."

"They know they'll need to keep on their toes and react rapidly to any signs of spatial anomalies?"

"Yes, captain."

"Good. Anything else?"

"Well, the _Colombo_, the_ Edmund Fitzgerald,_ and the colony ship continue to unload freight and construction material with the help of the Corps of Engineers contingent. Meanwhile, the two _Archer_-class scouts are stationed at opposite ends of the system's Oort cloud and in position to serve as our rapid reaction force. Finally, that new perimeter action ship, the _Echo,_ is in formation with the _Val_."

Tynen nodded. "We're the bait. If the Minbari show up, the _Echo_ and the _Val_ will attempt to draw them away from the planet. Etana, we'll use the Kaufman Retrograde maneuver to pound them from a distance while they try to chase us down. That should set them up to be flanked by Silva's group."

Just then, Mazan's panel chirped for her attention. Glancing down at it, she announced, "Captain, we are receiving a subspace transmission from Starfleet Command. Sir, it is Admiral Mendez."

"I'll take it in my ready room, lieutenant."

Tynen stood up, crossed the bridge and entered his office. Then he took a seat behind his desk and activated his terminal. "Tynen here, admiral."

Admiral Mendez's face appeared on the captain's screen looking less tense than it had a few days ago when he'd ordered the _Valkyrie_ to speed to Regulus. "Hello, Jay. Have you managed to turn Regulus into a deathtrap for the Minbari if they decide to darken our doorstep again?"

"Yes, sir. I'm sure we'd give them a warm welcome this time around."

A thin smile flashed across the admiral's face. "I'd just bet you would. However, it looks like those devils have decided to take their bat and ball and go home. We think they believe they've destroyed the major Earth Alliance colony in the Alpha Quadrant and are returning to their side of the galaxy to finish off the duplicate Earth."

"We can't let that happen, admiral!"

"I couldn't agree with you more. I wanted you to know the Klingon Imperial Navy and Starfleet are working together to send an expeditionary force of a hundred or so starships in the first wave to try and hold down the fort at the duplicate Earth's area of operation. Some of those ships, under the command of Admiral Kirk, General Kor, and General Chang, will conduct reconnaissance attacks in force into Minbari space to keep the enemy off-balance. Meanwhile, the bulk of the expeditionary force shall proceed to the Alliance Earth system to mount a spirited defense. In the meantime, both the Federation and the Klingons intend to fully mobilize so we both can prepare an invasion fleet and secure our borders from potential Romulan incursions. We plan to send several thousand vessels from both of our fleets to Alliance Earth space soon."

Tynen nodded and narrowed his eyes at the screen. "I take it you're not telling me this just to pass the time, sir."

Mendez sighed then leaned toward the camera. "No, Jay, I'm not. In three days, Klingon warships will arrive in the Regulus system escorting a small convoy of heavy freighters filled with relief supplies and construction material to help the colonists there. So make certain none of your people do anything stupid to antagonize them."

"I'm on top of it, admiral."

"Good, son. Now some of their light vessels will remain behind with several of your light units. However, two of their battlecruisers and four of their Birds of Prey are assigned to travel to the subspace channel that leads to Alliance Earth space. You are to form a task force with the _Valkyrie_, the _Echo_, the _Mako_, the _Jezar_, the _Nightingale_, and the scout ship _T'Pol_ along with those Klingon vessels I mentioned previously and proceed to the rendezvous point. You'll be in command of your task force until you are relieved by Admiral Tapin, the expeditionary force commander. Once you've arrived, dock with a tender to restock your ship before the expeditionary force enters the channel. Jay, you'll need to cast off one week from today."

The captain stared grimly at the image of his superior officer. So the _Valkyrie_ was going to war. Well, she was aptly named for it. "Aye, sir."

"Now, a day after the Klingons arrive at Regulus, the USS _Axanar_, a _Kolm-An_-class Assault Ship, shall warp in and transfer a MACO platoon to the _Valkyrie_. That'll bring your MACO complement up to a full battery of 108 soldiers. Of course, your Major Vanderweg shall remain as the overall commander of the entire battery."

"Yes, sir," Jason acknowledged.

"However, the _Axanar_ won't join your task force. She'll join the invasion fleet that'll leave sometime after the expeditionary force."

"I understand, admiral."

"Good. Well, do you have any questions at this time?"

"No, sir."

Mendez slowly nodded. "Well then—oh, Jay, something else has come up. A _Predator_-class destroyer on its way from the Dobhran Sector to Regulus was forced to prematurely drop out of warp due to the gravitational field of an immense structure, something along the lines of a Dyson Sphere. That vessel doesn't possess the capabilities or personnel to study the structure but her science officer believes that thing is nearly two hundred million miles in diameter!"

"Wow!" Tynen whispered to himself. Both V'Lar and Rex, his Chief Science Officer, would love to play with something like that!

"Jay, send the _Copernicus_." Then the admiral inserted a data rod in his console and pressed a button. "I've just relayed the pertinent information on the structure to you. Transfer all of those files to the survey vessel."

"Aye, aye, sir! When do you want her to leave?"

"After the Klingon forces have arrived at Regulus. The _Predator_ has already left the sphere to proceed to the expeditionary rendezvous point and I want Starfleet to maintain its claim on it before any of the Klingons crossing the Neutral Zone run across the thing."

"Very good, sir."

"I suppose that's all for now. Keep up the good work, Jay. We'll talk again before you leave Regulus. Give my regards to your crew for me."

"Will do, admiral."

"See you soon. Mendez out," the flag officer said. Then the screen went black.

After the call had ended, Tynen sat at his desk, lost in thought for awhile before the entry chime to his door sounded. "Come," he said.

The door to his office slid open to reveal Ensign Rager. He smiled and said, "Hello, Lanei."

She gave him a nervous smile and crept into his ready room. "Sir . . . I was wondering if I could talk to you for a moment. Is this a good time?"

"Of course, it is," he answered and indicated she should take the seat across from him. "What would you like to discuss?"

She squirmed a bit in her chair before she seemed to have settled on what she wanted to say. "Captain, are we going to fight the Minbari in their space?"

He regarded her stoically for a moment before he asked, "Do you mean 'we' as in the crew of the _Valkyrie_ or the royal 'we' as in Starfleet as a whole?"

"I mean the crew of the _Valkyrie_."

He carefully considered what he should tell her for several seconds before he decided to simply give it to her straight. "Yes, Lanei. I've just been told by Admiral Mendez the _Valkyrie_ is to engage the Minbari on the other side of the galaxy."

"B-but . . . why us, sir?" she asked. "Why did the Minbari do this terrible thing?"

He simply shrugged. "I'll answer your second question first. The simple reason is because we're Human. Starfleet believes the Minbari thought Regulus was a colony of a duplicate Earth that's located on their side of the galaxy. They wanted to eliminate Regulus as a possible threat to them because they are at war with that other Earth."

"So these Minbari don't realize ours is a different Earth altogether?"

"Yes," Tynen said. "Now, for your first question—one of Starfleet's mandates is to protect the member worlds and colonies of the United Federation of Planets. We had twenty thousand brothers and sisters who gave their lives trying to defend the citizens of the Regulus colonies from people who had no cause to harm us. The Minbari killed those Starfleet crewmen and nearly killed all the colonists. We don't have the power to bring all of those people back; however, we do have the power to seek justice on their behalf."

He then stood up and crossed over to his window to look upon a murdered world. He'd been to the Regulus III city of New London once a few years ago. He recalled the elevated walkways that teamed with people going about their lives, busily discussing advances in science or arguing about various theories of philosophy. New London had been a place where people had put down roots, built homes, raised their children.

Now, New London was nothing but an obscenely grotesque graveyard of epic proportions.

"Sir…"

He heard the question in her voice.

"The Minbari," he added, "never tried to communicate with us; they didn't accept the colonists' cries of surrender; they just killed as many people as they could. Neither the Romulans nor the Klingons would commit genocide against a helpless population, yet the Minbari have no qualms about it."

He turned to face her. "We need to stop them, Lanei. We need to show them that civilized people do not behave in such a manner. You, me, your shipmates…we have the means and the ability to do what needs to be done but only if we work together. I don't like war. I seek to understand people…to discuss our differences, to learn from them and their cultures. I don't want to kill anyone."

"Yet, sometimes in the defense of life, we must be willing to kill. Some of us won't make it back to our homes, our families. But Starfleet will make certain that most of us still have homes and families here when we return to the Alpha Quadrant. So, ensign, can your brothers and sisters count on you? Can I count on you?"

Without hesitation, she sprang up from her chair and snapped to attention. "Aye, aye, sir!"

He smiled. "I know you won't let us down, Lanei. If that's all, why don't you go and take a break for a little while. Oh, please keep our talk just between us until I make the announcement about our expedition to Alliance Earth space, all right?"

"Yes, sir!" Then she paused for a moment and said softly with her confident smile back in form, "Thank you, captain."

He nodded. "Then carry on, ensign!" he snapped as she turned smartly and marched right out the door.

#

_Maybe I shouldn't have laid it on so thick. Maybe I should have told Lanei she'd every right to be frightened. Said, "Maybe you've got the good sense to recognize you're too young to die in the depths of outer space, fruitlessly attempting to draw your last breath from relentless vacuum as your eyes flash dry." Because if I had, I might've found the courage to do the noble thing, sent V'Lar to study the Dyson Sphere so she'd receive the scientific honors that'd go with it._

_But I didn't. Because in my heart, I knew I was too weak to face the coming storm without her._

#

He entered his music room and jumped a little when he found V'Lar already there waiting for him. Her statuesque figure sat cross-legged on his couch as she read a PADD. As he watched her, he heaved a sigh. Her serene beauty always managed to steal his breath away. She must have heard him then and glanced up from her PADD. Not the kind of man to look a gift horse in the mouth, Jason took shameless advantage of the situation by leaning over to kiss her.

"Can you stay for awhile?" he asked, noting that she'd taken off her shoes and appeared to be relaxed . . . well, at least for a Vulcan.

She looked up at him with her 'mildly bemused' glint in her eyes. "I believe so. If necessary, tomorrow, I shall meet with more crewmen who wish to address their concerns regarding our orders to travel to Alliance Earth space."

"If you'd like," he said over his shoulder as he placed an ancient George Benson album on his turntable, switched on the device, and lowered the stylus onto the record, "I can help take on some of them for you."

"I do not believe your aid shall be required; however, I will keep your offer in mind."

He simply nodded because he had complete confidence in her.

Although, at first, she'd been as stiff as the typical Vulcan when she'd first come aboard, the crew had warmed up considerably to V'Lar over the past year. Now, she was sought out by more members of their crew for chats than him. Apparently, she seemed more approachable to them than the captain even though they both were 188 centimeters tall and towered over a majority of the people on the _Valkyrie_.

However, all of that could wait until tomorrow. For now, he just wanted to spend some time with his other half.

After the _Valkyrie_ had left the Tellun system for Yridia, the new lovers had proceeded to explore the boundaries of their connection. As per their previously established routine, they'd continued to dine together, accompanied each other to the ship's weekly movie night, and listened to his stereo system in his private room off to the side of the arboretum. They'd also been careful to avoid kissing or touching in plain sight even after she'd taught him the only sign of affection Vulcans considered appropriate for public displays; the caress of two fingers between mates and lovers. In private, though, she'd been surprisingly demonstrative toward him.

Now, Tynen flopped down heavily onto the couch, kicked off his shoes, and leaned back against a few pillows. "I'm happy you're here, love," he said as he placed both of his hands behind his head and sighed. As he started to relax and unwind, he examined her face while she continued to read and shifted slightly to press his leg against hers. In response, she set her PADD down on the sofa and leaned back to rest her head on his shoulder.

"Ever since we have arrived here, we have had little time to experience a more personal . . . form of discourse," she whispered. Then she caressed his nose with hers before she lowered her mouth to claim his.

He deepened the kiss for a moment before he withdrew and whispered, "It's been a few days."

"It has been three days, twenty hours, ten minutes, and thirty-six seconds," she noted for the record.

"Really?" he asked offhandedly, his attention focused on gently nipping one of her earlobes with his teeth. "You know, you really taste good . . ." he murmured. As his nose pressed against her neck, he noticed she wore a light perfume – something she'd hardly ever done for as long as he'd known her. So he decided to lathe the base of her neck with his tongue and gather her bouquet. He savored her; she completely intoxicated him.

As he continued to worship her, she purred loudly like some great jungle cat. Soon, her hand roamed across the muscles of his chest before it swept down below his waist. He moaned in her ear and the sound must have set off something deep and primeval. The next thing he knew, both of them were shirtless. His upper body was bare and hers was only partially covered by her Starfleet standard issue bra.

Seconds later, she took him by surprise when she nudged her nose against his breast bone and flared her nostrils, inhaling his aroma. Then she growled lowly. "I have your scent, Jason Tynen; it ignites a fire inside me that can be quenched only by you." Suddenly her mouth latched onto his neck, causing his eyes to roll up inside his head. V'Lar then slipped her fingers along the side of his face and initiated their first mind meld.

In his mind, he saw her basking beneath him as trade winds spurred by the warmth he generated caressed her skin. As his heat circulated throughout her body, she moaned.

_'Yes,' _she telepathically called out, encouraging him.

Soon, the gentle nibbling of her teeth transformed into a suckling that left small bruises on his neck while her nails clawed the skin of his back. Then she moaned hoarsely. "Aisha."

That was all she wrote. When she'd said whatever the hell she'd said, he had to join with her. Dominantly, he pressed his fingers to her temple and whispered, "My mind to your mind."

_'This cannot be!' _her mind shouted to his soul._ 'You are human!'_

_'What does it matter?' _he silently told her. _'I am yours.' _Then he whispered both in her mind and out loud, _'You and I have become one, V'Lar,'_ and when his fingers intertwined with hers, she trembled in his arms.

Moments later, he gently removed his digits from her temple and attempted to catch his breath when he noticed the dazed look on her face. "Love, are you all right?"

She stared into space and muttered, "_That _was unanticipated." Then with eyes ablaze with amazement, she whispered his name and pressed her body firmly against him.

#

He wakened and glanced down to find her on her side with her head resting upon his chest. Apparently, she'd fallen asleep immediately after they'd completed their mind meld.

At first he smiled at the sight of her. Then doubts made his mind whirl. What had they done? Would everything be fine... after this night? Would she be all right? Would they survive this?

He knew he could never deny his feelings for her. But he'd never dreamed he'd experienced anything like what had happened minutes ago. Why just the thought of it all made his head hurt a little.

_'Go to sleep, Jason.' _

His eyes shot wide open at that. _'What?'_ he thought.

_'Beloved, sleep...now.' _

_'V'Lar?'_

_'Yes, aisha?' _

He tilted his head toward her and whispered, "Are you talking to me, V'Lar?"

"I am," she noted, her voice expressing mild bemusement.

"In my mind?"

_'Yes.'_ In fact, her voice in his head sounded kind of…forceful and...sexy, causing a lazy grin to dawn on his face.

Then he tried to formulate a question. "But...how?"

"Vulcans can hear the thoughts and feel the emotions of a bondmate."

"You can do that with a human?"

She glanced away from him for a moment and he knew she was uncertain about something. Then she said, "Although a few Vulcans have mated with other species, to do so is quite rare. In most cases, a Vulcan is unable to maintain a link with the non-Vulcan mate outside of a meld. It has been proven that humans were not capable of sharing thoughts with us once the meld was severed."

"But earlier...I heard your warning not to say anything to Tevik. That occurred outside a meld."

"Yes," she agreed.

"So, you're telling me we can share thoughts despite the belief by your people I'm incapable of doing so under these circumstances?"

"Yes."

"Do you have a theory on how this happened?"

"At the present time...I do not," she stated. "However, regardless of how this link was established, you have inadvertently evolved the state of our relationship."

"Oh, right! Let's blame the poor, dumb human for this mess!" he teased.

She pointedly ignored him and morphed into her Vulcan-science-geek mode. "Jason, how do you feel about me?"

"I love you."

She closed her eyes for several beats then opened them to gaze serenely at his face. "I … cherish thee, Jason, more than I have anyone else."

He hugged her close as his heart felt like it was going to explode. "I know."

"However, this bond has taken us to the next phase of our relationship," she explained as a furrow formed between her slanted brows.

"The 'next phase,' you say?"

"Yes."

"Such as...?"

"Betrothal," she whispered. "Your intermediary, normally your father, must ask Salar for his permission to allow you to become my bondmate. Undoubtedly, my father will determine you are an adequate suitor and approve the joining of our houses."

He looked at her as if she was crazy. He really didn't know how his dad would take this, his first born marrying a Vulcan. And what about Salar, the esteemed Federation Ambassador from the planet Vulcan? "Undoubtedly?" he murmured.

"Yes, Jason. He holds you in the highest regard; after all, you saved the life of his only daughter and you rescued both the life and honor of his only son after my brother had been framed for a murder he did not commit."

Although his doubts were quieted somewhat by her reasoning, he still wasn't convinced. _I mean it's a universal constant; no father ever trusts any guy who wants to do the 'wild thing' with daddy's little girl!_ he mused. Look, it was one thing to be grateful to an undeserving cad for saving your daughter's life; it was another to be fine with allowing the undeserving cad to marry her!

She brought him out of his funk when she added, "My father will also discern upon your father's assurances that you could endure the trials of Pon Farr."

"Pon Farr?"

She sent a flood of thoughts his way: the madness, the blood fever, the mating. Images of crazed Vulcans desperately yearning to breed were revealed to him. '_Once I have begun my Pon Farr, we would bond completely. Then you would become my...lifemate.' _

The arching of his brow mimicked that of a Vulcan's. "I see," he said, though he truly didn't. When she responded with the arching of her own brow, he sighed deeply. "V'Lar...I'm completely devoted to you," he admitted. "I love you and if this is the tradition of your people, I'll do it."

The adoration he felt from her touched him profoundly. His V'Lar was not a maudlin woman, yet when she revealed her emotions to him, they reminded him of the Mississippi River, serene yet deep. Although it was difficult for her to say the words, her thoughts demonstrated she loved him intensely.

He kissed her once again and she responded eagerly. Then he broke the kiss and asked, "V'Lar...what does the word 'aisha' mean?"

"It means 'beloved,'" she whispered.

He smiled. "I am yours, aisha. I don't want to hide. I want it out in the open. Of course, we'd be discrete and the epitome of professionalism while we're on duty but I want us to live together as husband and wife."

"It would please me for us to be together in such a way as well."

He nodded. "All right, I'll break the news to Admiral Mendez. Somehow, I think it might be good to have the old man in our corner."

"I agree as well, my beloved. However, we should first contact our fathers and relay our tidings to them. Once my father's permission is granted, we would legally be considered bondmates under Vulcan law."

"Alright," he agreed. Then a naughty thought flashed through his mind. He wondered if she'd be interested in another bout of 'bonding.'

_'That would please me,' _she thought to him while she leaned in for another kiss.

That was exactly what he wanted to hear…even if he hadn't really 'heard' it.

#

The captain grinned both at the memory of the _Koon-ut So'lik_, their betrothal, and how his dad had risen to the occasion and come through for him with V'Lar's father. Actually, both he and his bondmate had been somewhat stunned by how fast their fathers had apparently become bosom buddies, but as it had turned out, other affairs had forced them to turn their attention elsewhere.

As he contemplated those events, his smile faded.

_What's the old saying? 'Every silver lining has its cloud?' Well, ours turned out to be very dark, indeed._

#


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

After Tuesday's Incident Command meeting, Tevik approached both the _Valkyrie_'s captain and first officer. "Commander V'Lar, may I have a word with you - in private?"

She nodded graciously to the other Vulcan. "Of course." Then she turned to her captain. "Sir, may we use your ready room?"

Although Tynen wanted to shout, 'Hell no! I don't want you to have anything to do with this jerk!', what he actually said was, "By all means, commander. Take as much time as necessary." Then he blinked twice. Oh, well, he could have told her to 'take as much time as you'd like'; however his hypocrisy only went so far.

In response, she nodded to him once and simply said in her normal, controlled voice, "Thank you, captain." However, he felt a warm tingle race up his spine, almost as if he'd just received an affectionate hug from her. Then he heard, _'Do not be concerned, aisha. I shall not tarry long,' _in his mind.

He smiled slyly at her and said, "You're welcome, commander."

For a brief moment, Tevik looked at him oddly. However, the Vulcan apparently recovered his control and said, "Captain Tynen, if you will excuse us," before he strode out of the conference room at V'Lar's side.

#

_Later on, she'd told me he'd been having trouble sleeping and wanted her to help him center himself during meditation. Since Vulcan's don't have ulterior motives, she simply accepted his explanation. However, during my time with the Section, I'd always relied upon my instincts. More than once, they'd kept me in one piece. _

_So, when I'd first laid eyes on Tevik, they'd screamed at me about the guy. Even so, I'd tried to ignore them. Maybe I'd wanted to be diplomatic. Maybe I'd thought I was being silly because I hadn't wanted him to show any interest in V'Lar._

_In either case, I swear I'll never try to talk myself out of paying attention to them again._

_In the meantime, I had Etana place a call to Mendez. Although he's hard to read at times, he's a good man with a reputation for being a straight-shooter. He took a chance on not questioning a young officer who'd been off the grid until I'd darkened his doorstep backed by a few flag officers connected to the Section. When I requested command of a frigate, he gave it to me. I owed him the courtesy of telling him about V'Lar and me._

_I just prayed that, on this occasion, his bark would be worse than his bite. _

#

"Captain, Admiral Mendez is ready to take your call."

Tynen sighed deeply. _Oh well, it's been a good life_, he mused. "Good, lieutenant. Please pipe him into my ready room."

"Aye, sir," Etana answered, while he crossed the bridge and entered his office. Moments later, after he sat down behind his desk, he activated his terminal. "Tynen here, admiral. Thank you for taking my call."

Admiral Mendez's face appeared on his screen. "Hello, Jay. What did you want to discuss?"

Tynen sighed deeply then pressed on. "Sir, I wanted you to be the first to know that an intimate relationship has formed between my first officer and..." he paused, searching for the right word.

"And whom...?" the admiral prompted.

"Well...me, sir."

"WHAT?"

"I know this comes as quite a shock."

"Really, you think?" the admiral snapped sarcastically. "Jay, are you out of your damn mind! She's a Vulcan, for God's sakes!"

Tynen fought down the urge to roll his eyes at the other man's grasp of the obvious. "I kind of figured that out, sir, you know, considering her ears and all," he drawled.

"That's not very damn funny, captain!" the admiral growled. Then the man winced like he'd just been stricken with a killer migraine. "How did you let this happen?"

"Well, we'd become close friends, shared common interests, and I became attracted to her. However, I'd never intended to act on my attraction. I mean, she **is** a Vulcan," he said, as if that explained everything. It must have because Mendez simply nodded. "Several weeks ago, we attended a dance on Troyius as part of our diplomatic duty. That night, she was dressed so elegantly, I guess it finally hit me that she wasn't only my best friend and my partner, but the most beautiful woman I've ever known. Then she nearly gave me a heart attack when she told me she was attracted to me and would be interested to know if I'd be 'amenable to exploring the possibility of entering into a committed relationship' with her."

The admiral cocked his right eyebrow at that. "She asked if you'd be amenable to exploring the possibility of entering into a committed relationship?"

"Yes, sir."

"Those were her exact words?"

Tynen nodded.

Mendez sighed heavily and shrugged. "_Now_, I know you're not making this whole thing up. Only a Vulcan could pop the question like that." Then the admiral regained some of his head of steam and glared at him. "Look, I know that technically there are no regulations against this, but why in the hell would you fall for your Vulcan first officer on a ship that's supposed to be a showcase for Starfleet's diversity?"

Tynen shot a confused look at the man. Was that a trick question or something? For God's sakes, what better way to showcase the Federation's diversity by having a human bonding with a Vulcan? "I don't know, sir. I didn't see a reason not to."

"Oh, I can think of some reasons, Tynen! Twenty-one billion of them, all the freaking Vulcans in the galaxy!" he snapped. Then the admiral took a moment to calm himself somewhat and observed, "Look, it's one thing for a human female to marry one of them; they'd probably consider it as an act of 'civilizing' one of us. It's another, though, to have a human male, a virtual savage in their eyes, degrade them by taking one of their females from an esteemed family."

_Wow_, Tynen realized. He'd never seen the old man's face so red before! "Sir, she's not Helen of Troy! I think you might be exaggerating the effect of our-"

"The hell I am!" the flag officer cut him off. Then the admiral appeared to struggle to settle down once again before he said through gritted teeth, "Just what kind of relationship do you two have?"

Tynen simply shrugged. "We've bonded in the Vulcan way."

At that, Mendez's face grew beet red. "Is that like...marriage?" the man asked through very thin lips.

The captain paused to ponder that for a moment. "Kind of," he answered.

"Get her in here!" the admiral roared.

"Sir?"

"V'Lar. I have to make certain that no sexual harassment occurred in this situation."

Tynen narrowed his eyes at the admiral yet offered no protest as he snapped on his intercom. "Tynen to V'Lar."

"V'Lar here."

"Commander, Admiral Mendez would like to have a word with you."

"Acknowledged. I shall be there shortly."

"Good. Tynen out."

Moments later, his door chime sounded. "Enter," he said.

The door slid open and she strode smartly into his ready room. As soon as Mendez saw her, he snapped, "Do you two have any idea how this'll play both here and on Vulcan?"

Tynen simply shrugged. "I frankly don't care what anyone on either planet thinks, admiral."

V'Lar didn't react outwardly to his statement; however, he could feel she was pleased with his response. Then she said to Mendez, "The people of my world may not be as concerned as you seem to believe, admiral."

"Really? Would you care to explain why, commander?"

"After Ambassador Sarek married Lady Amanda of Earth, the unthinkable to most Vulcans had become reality. Years later, the USS _Enterprise_ brought their son home to Vulcan to wed and our entire planet witnessed that the life-friends at his side were a human captain and a human physician. Admiral, this man, my captain, my life-friend, is now my bondmate. I am his; he is mine. We are one. And if my people looked inside my Vulcan heart they would bear witness to that inescapable truth."

"Commander," the admiral asked, "what about your parents?"

"My father holds Jason in high regard. My mother is concerned about our bond, yet she would not stand in our way."

The admiral narrowed his eyes at them and said, "I'm still not convinced you two realize the serious nature of your choice in this regard."

"Sir, I beg to differ," she said. "We are aware of the risks. Neither world may completely accept our bond, yet we are prepared to live our lives together in Starfleet. It is here we both can serve the common good. It is here our differences are celebrated. It is here we can be true to ourselves and each other."

The flag officer studied them through the screen for several moments before he spoke again. "I have a few questions for you, V'Lar. The first question is did you initiate this relationship with Captain Tynen?"

"Yes, sir. I was the one who broached the question to the captain whether he would be amenable to entering into a committed relationship with me."

He nodded then asked, "Do you both intend to stay with your ship or do you wish to be reassigned?"

Tynen glanced at her and he transmitted his thought to her. Then she turned to the screen and said, "Admiral…we have seen entire planets turned into mass graves; I have seen what the Minbari would do to you, my bondmate, and the rest of humanity if we do not stop their madness. Sir, we intend to take this ship and her crew to the other side of the galaxy to make certain the Minbari shall never harm humanity like this ever again."

"I take it you two just began this…ah…intimate relationship a few weeks ago?"

"Yes," she said.

"That seems a little fast to me. I suppose, though, for a Vulcan, a short engagement period is logical in some way, shape, or form?"

"That is true. Jason and I have determined our relationship is viable. We do not desire to spend our lives apart. Thus, it is illogical to wait to become lifemates."

When she'd concluded, Mendez stared intensely at them for several moments. Then he sighed heavily. "Fine. I'll do what I can to smooth things over for you here at command."

"Thank you, sir," Tynen said.

The admiral nodded and said, "Look, I can't order you to conceal your...whatever the hell you call it."

"A bond, sir," she answered. "It is similar to the human concept of marriage. However, to avoid any appearance of impropriety to our crew, we are amenable to being wed under Starfleet protocols."

"All right, V'Lar. That sounds acceptable. Still, I want you two to maintain a low profile."

"I understand, sir," Tynen said.

Mendez then turned his attention to V'Lar. "Commander?"

"A 'low profile' is unobjectionable, admiral."

Mendez smiled and said, "If that's all, I'll sign off now. It seems the Minbari situation has rapidly escalated into a full-scale war and the logistics for our war-effort are daunting, particularly considering the vast distances between our space and Earth Alliance. We'll need to recall some experienced reservists and retirees to serve on all the ships we're pulling out of the mothball fleet. So, I'm meeting with the head of the Sentient Relations and Communications Division to prepare a public relations blitz to support our manpower efforts. However, before I go, let me offer you my congratulations, Jay. She's quite a catch."

V'Lar nodded graciously toward the old man. "Why, thank you, admiral."

The flag officer smirked and added, "You're welcome, commander. And allow me to offer _you_ my sympathies because I know Jay can be a handful."

"It is gratifying to know your reputation for acute perception precedes you, admiral."

Mendez laughed. "Jay, you _are_ a lucky man. Make certain you take good care of that lady or else you'll have to answer to me."

"Aye, aye, sir!"

"All right then. See you soon. Mendez out."

As the screen went blank, she gave her bondmate a puzzled look. "Why would the admiral refer to me as a 'catch?'"

He smiled gently at her, marveled by her innocence. "It was just an expression, aisha. He was merely indicating how fortunate I am to have a mate who is beyond reproach."

In response, he felt a warm sensation flood his entire being as she caressed her two fingers against his.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

_Since Admiral Mendez had given us his support and her father had given me his blessing, we'd decided to have a Starfleet-sanctioned wedding to avoid any appearance of impropriety for the sake of the crew. Later, if we survived the war in Alliance Earth space, we'd have a Vulcan wedding ceremony on her family's estate and renew our vows in New Orleans in front of my family._

_We'd decided to ask Antonio Silva, the_ Mako's _captain, to perform the ceremony. Before that could happen, we needed two people to act as witnesses. V'Lar had determined that Salayna Rex, her valued colleague, would fit the bill as her maid of honor and intended to ask Salayna after she'd assisted Tevik with his little problem. _

_My choice, however, required a more...Machiavellian approach._

#

Tynen strode into the _Valkyrie_'s sickbay, hoping Dr. Thae'lak Shron was engaged in treating a complex medical emergency.

"Captain!" the Andorian announced brightly. "To what do we owe the honor of your presence in our humble sickbay?" Then the man swept his pale blue hand across the breadth of the empty room. "As you can see, we have the capacity to treat any ailment you may have. So tell me, how may we assist you?"

Inwardly cursing his rotten luck, the captain said, "Actually, I'm feeling fine, Thae'lak. I just dropped by to have a word with you...in private."

The physician simply stared at him for a moment before he nodded. "Of course," the Andorian said, before he escorted Tynen into his office.

The Andorian commander took a seat behind his desk while Jason sat in a chair across from Shron. The captain then sighed deeply. "Thae'lak, I have to tell you something you probably won't like, so I want you to promise me you won't fly off the handle after you hear it, okay?"

The pale blue-skinned man narrowed his eyes at Tynen while his antennae leaned toward the captain. "What do you mean by 'something I probably won't like?'"

Tynen shot a faux nervous glance at his friend. "Well...remember that time several months ago when your sister visited the ship and the three of us spent the night drinking shots of Romulan Ale?"

Shron blinked twice at that before a lazy smile crept onto his face. "Barely. That certainly was a wild night, Brown skin! You know, Tayara was quite surprised that you, an Earther, could actually hold your ale alongside an Andorian woman! Why, I recall passing out while you and Tayara proceeded to drink me under the tab-" Suddenly, Shron interrupted himself as his eyes nearly bulged out of his skull. Then he glared at Tynen and shouted, "Are you trying to tell me you took advantage of my sister?"

The captain responded with a carefully crafted expression of horror on his face. "Of course not! I'd never do something like that to you!"

The Andorian appeared to calm himself after that and sighed heavily. "Well, that's a relief! You know, Tynen, you really had me going there for a moment!"

Tynen said nothing and simply smiled at the other man.

"So, tell me," Shron asked, "why did you bring up my sister anyway?"

"I only mentioned it because we're such good friends...oh, and I love V'Lar, she cherishes me, we're getting married, and would you be my best man at our wedding ceremony?"

The captain waited a minute or two for some kind of reaction from his friend before he asked, "Are you still processing what I'd just said or are you having a heart attack?"

At first, Shron's mouth opened and shut repeatedly like a landed fish as no sounds issued from it. Then the Andorian finally found his voice. "You!" he whispered harshly. "A-and…the Vulcan?"

Tynen nodded.

"You...you wish to bond with her?"

Tynen nodded once more.

"You...and she...intend to have intimate...relations...with each other?" Shron squeaked.

Tynen nodded fervently.

Then the Andorian shook his head from side-to-side, apparently attempting to sweep _that_ image from his mind.

Shron then regarded the captain sullenly. "How?"

"How...what?"

Thae'lak frowned at him. "How did _this_," he said, the deep-seeded and ancient animosity many of his people still felt toward Vulcans plainly evident in his voice, "happen!"

Annoyed somewhat by his friend's antipathy to his woman, the little devil on Tynen's shoulder decided to get into the act just then. "I don't really know...I suppose it started a year ago when I strapped her wrists together, stripped her down to her underwear, and had her mount me shortly after she'd come on board the _Valkyrie_..."

Moments later the captain chanced a glimpse to see how his exaggerated account of V'Lar's and his escape last year from certain death had affected Thae'lak. He was somewhat surprised to note that the man's antennae stood as stiff as flagpoles on the top of his forehead.

Suddenly, Shron noted woodenly, "I knew humans could accomplish almost anything when they set their minds to it, but I never thought in my wildest dreams one of you could possibly succeed in corrupting a Vulcan!" Then the Andorian regarded the captain with a look both of awe and reverence. "Brown skin," he exclaimed, "for this, your blood should grace the Andorian Guard's Wall of Heroes!"

Although Tynen considered, for a nanosecond, whether he should disclose to his friend that he'd only bound and disrobed V'Lar so he could carry her unconscious form when he rescued her from a baryon sweep, he immediately nixed the notion. Sometimes, he reasoned, the means justified the ends. "Great!" the captain chirped. "So, will you help me administer the _coup de grace_ of my gambit by being my best man?"

The doctor lifted his chin proudly and puffed out his chest. "The wild horses of your homeworld could not drag me away from being at your side in your hour of triumph. I, Thae'lak Shron, shall be there!"

#

After thirty minutes and substantial intimidation on his part to keep Shron from planning a night of debauchery in the bride's and groom's honor, Tynen found himself standing outside Niznik Vox's cabin. After screwing up his courage, the captain pressed Vox's door chime.

"Come," he heard Vox's voice say before the door swept open.

Tynen poked his head through the open portal and found that Vox was seated on a couch reviewing a PADD. "Hello, Vox. Is this a good time?"

The young Trill male smiled warmly at him. "Of course, Jason. Please come inside."

He entered Vox's quarters and gingerly crossed the room to stand in front of the couch. "May I?" he asked indicating the empty space beside Vox.

Vox smiled warmly up at him and nodded. He sat next to Vox and regarded the joined Trill with a smile of his own. Even though Niznik's masculine features were readily apparent to most people, Tynen still spied mannerisms and expressions that recalled in his mind, Jezri, his first real love.

"So," Vox asked, "what's on your mind?"

Tynen chuckled and shook his head. "I'd never thought I'd ever be having _this_ conversation with you."

Vox's face still maintained a smile even with the puzzled look in his eyes. "What do you want to tell me, Jason?"

Tynen then drew a deep breath, exhaled it noisily, and said, "Vox…I'm in love with V'Lar."

The joined Trill blinked three times before he seemed to find his voice. "V'Lar?"

Tynen nodded. "Yes. She loves me, too, Vox. We've bonded in the Vulcan way and we're getting married."

"You're getting m-married?" Vox stammered. Then the navigator shook his head. "Wow…this is all so…sudden, Jason. How long have you two been together?"

"Well, we've been dating for three weeks or so. Last night, we bonded."

Vox stared at him for several beats before he gave him a thin smile. "T-that's great news!" Then Vox reached over to grab the other man in a tender hug. "I'm really happy for you…happy for you both! She's a wonderful person!"

The captain nodded as he fought down the feeling that he had Jezri in his arms once more. "You'd get no argument from me on that. I can't believe someone as incredibly wonderful as V'Lar wants me, Vox!"

"Oh, don't be such an idiot," Vox protested gently. "You're not so bad yourself, you know."

Tynen pulled himself gently out of the hug and nodded at Vox. "Thanks."

"You're welcome, Jason. Always," The Trill said. "So, when do you plan to 'tie the knot,' as your people say?"

"The day after tomorrow, our wedding party will beam over to the _Mako_ where Captain Silva will perform the ceremony. Before that, though, tomorrow evening, Shron and Salayna plan to have a little celebration in our honor. The Alpha Shift bridge crew will be invited, along with Major Vanderweg and Janja."

"Who's in the wedding party?"

"Shron's my best man and Rex is V'lar's maid of honor."

A cloud appeared to cross Vox's face for a short moment; then it was gone. "Sounds kind of small, doesn't it?"

Tynen shrugged. "Well, you know V'Lar. She doesn't want a big, fancy production."

Vox nodded. "Yes, that is the Vulcan way, isn't it?"

"You can say that again. Don't worry, though. When we return to the Alpha Quadrant from Alliance Earth space, we'll have a big, New Orleans-style wedding with all the trimmings! And you'll be there, Vox, right alongside us!"

Vox grinned slyly at him. "Why, of course, sir! I mean, who am I to argue with the captain of the _Valkyrie_?"

He smiled and tenderly rested his hand upon Vox's shoulder. "You're my good friend, that's who you are."

They warmly regarded each other for several moments before Tynen sighed deeply. "Well, I guess I'd better go. I need to arrange for Janja to draw up some plans to combine V'Lar's quarters and mine to create a stateroom. See you tomorrow?"

Vox nodded at him. "You can count on it, Jason. Oh, and once again, please accept my congratulations! I'm truly happy for you both."

He flashed a grin at his navigator, gave the Trill a jaunty wave, and exited the cabin, unknowingly leaving a now quite somber Vox in his wake.

#

After leaving Vox's quarters, Jason sauntered to the Engineering Deck in search of Lt. Commander Janja Rad. When he found his Chief Engineer, they entered the man's office to take a look at schematics of the quarters in "Officers' Country" to determine the best way to combine his billet with his bride's. An hour later, he went to the mess hall for a bite to eat then returned to his cabin to brush his teeth, shower, and shave. Then he dressed in his old Starfleet Academy sweatshirt, sweatpants, and slippers, grabbed an old novel, flopped down onto his sofa and waited for V'Lar to come to his cabin. Nearly an hour later she entered his quarters wearing one of her Vulcan evening robes to find him waiting for her.

"Has Captain Tevik returned to his ship?" he asked.

She nodded listlessly.

"Did you have a chance to talk with Salayna?"

"Yes. She accepted my request to be my maid of honor."

He stood up and approached her but she held up her right hand signaling him to halt his advance. "Give me a moment, Jason. I am still attempting to integrate the sensations that arose during our meditations."

Tynen simply shrugged and returned to his seat while she started for his bathroom. As he struggled to lock away his jealousy of the Vulcan captain, she stopped and turned to face him. "I am sensing an emotion from you that I do not understand."

He glared at her and snapped, "I thought you'd said it was rude for you to intrude into my thoughts absent my consent."

She regarded him with a neutral expression on her face. "You were broadcasting your feelings quite openly. Perhaps I should provide you with assistance by instructing you on how to shield your emotions."

Tynen narrowed his eyes at her then. "I think I've got it covered, V'Lar. Do you sense anything now?"

A look of concentration swept across her face for several long moments. Then she allowed her control to slip to reveal her astonishment. "How?"

He knew what she'd detected. He'd completely blocked her mental probes, using techniques drilled into him by the Section's Deltan and Betazoid operatives. Although Vulcans had strong psychic abilities bolstered by their logic, for the most part, they were touch telepaths, unable to challenge an experienced Deltan or Betazoid who were capable of projection or reception over far greater distances. Now, smug with the knowledge that he'd managed to surprise her with his ability, he answered, "I can't tell you; it's classified."

She took that in with a nearly imperceptible narrowing of her own eyes. "Your shields are quite formidable. However, it must be difficult to maintain them for a substantial period of time."

"Not really," he said. "In the past, I had to maintain them for months at a time. So, I believe you should find my shielded mind a preferable contrast to listening in on my undisciplined 'human emotions.'"

She said nothing as she turned away and retreated into his bathroom. Several minutes later, she exited his lavatory and strode toward him with her robe hanging loosely about her shoulders. When she came to a halt beside the sofa, she stared down at him and said, "I do not."

He gave her a puzzled look. "You do not-what?"

"I do not find the obstruction of our connection to be 'preferable.' I take great pleasure from our bond, Jason. Although your emotions are, at times, a source of confusion to me, more often than not, they furnish me with a sense of assimilation and...contentment."

He smiled up at her. "That's true for me, as well, love. Don't you know my heart belongs to you?"

She nodded and said, "Please forgive me for my insensitivity, aisha."

He exonerated her with a placid smile while he reached for her, unable to resist drawing her near. Tynen tangled his fingers into the soft cloth of her garment, dragging it down her olive-tinged back and shoulders. In response, her eyes opened wide and she glanced down at him. It was then that their fiery gazes locked onto the others. Suddenly, her look grew wanton and called to something primeval inside him. Before he knew it, she flung herself at him, attacking his mouth with hers. Answering in kind, he teased her lips open and kissed her with abandon. Soon, V'Lar's robe drifted to the floor, alighting with the sound of an angel's kiss. A moment later, when his hands cupped her bottom, Jason growled lowly, triggering her to press her body even more firmly against his. Unable to control himself any longer, he swept her up in his arms, sprang onto his feet, and carried her across the room while her hands fondled his chest under his shirt.

When they reached his bed, he swung her legs down to rest upon the deck and together they dragged his sweatshirt over his head. While her hands wandered purposefully across the muscles of his chest, the extremely moved man, cowed by the fact that she'd come to him nude under her robe, whispered, "I love you, V'Lar." Even with his confession of his adoration for her, he fought down the impatience of the child inside, while the careful, thoughtful man who stood sentinel over the reins that governed his emotions took control so he could protect his unwary mate from being overwhelmed by his fire.

All of a sudden, she growled in a way that raised the hairs on the back of the ancient primate's neck that dwelt deep down inside his living soul. "Jason Tynen, I have caught your scent," she spoke the ancient words lowly as her nostrils flared while she drew her nose across his chest. Then, as her fingers sketched sensuous runes across the planes of his back, she recited the elemental vow that a Vulcan woman employed to initiate her first coupling with her bonded mate. "Aisha-my mind to your mind, my thoughts to your thoughts, my heart to your heart, forever together, never parted."

The power of the words crashed open the floodgates for the lovers. He flung her onto his bed then lunged down beside her. Moments later, his lips and tongue caressed the heated flesh of her ear, her throat and then her breasts. As she arched her back to meet his tender salutations, he guided his fingers – the same ones she'd taught him to use for the Vulcan kiss – to explore her intimately.

When she moaned deeply, he said, "You enjoy that." It was a statement, not an inquiry.

"Yes."

He pressed his lips softly against her body as he crept downward, pausing at her ribcage, then her flat tummy, then the bones of her hips before finally coming to rest beside her right thigh.

Then she lifted her head, fixed her eyes upon his, and gave him a puzzled glance. "What are you doing?"

The only answer he gave was his eyes twinkling wickedly in the moment before he kissed her like she'd never been kissed before.

Suddenly, she slammed her eyes closed, while impassioned entreaties to ancient, nearly-forgotten gods of her ancestors tumbled from her feverish lips.

Moments later, as the fingers of both of her hands clawed the sheets of his bed, she begged him, "Aisha, please stop!"

Continuing to trace her softness with his fingers, he halted his ministrations to ask a simple question.

"Why?"

"Because...I am aflame!" she howled.

Suddenly, like some great jungle cat, she pounced on him, ardent, perhaps even zealous with her longing to make him scream out her name in ecstasy. She bathed him with her tongue, sweeping it over the sensitive parts of his body for several wild and glorious minutes before she allowed her hips to slip down over his. Soon, they began to move together in a rhythm as old as time. "Aisha, do not stop!" she commanded, her eyes feral in her craving for him as her fingertips caressed and fondled his body.

Then he gazed up at her with eyes as dark as a Terran night. "As you wish…my beloved wife."

#

_She took possession of my very soul that night. Although I will always treasure our first time as wondrous, I should have realized something was unearthly about the passion we shared so soon in our relationship._

#


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

He watched her while she slept.

Minutes ago, he'd awakened and crept from their bed to relieve himself. Now, a nude Tynen stood in front of his transparent aluminum window, with his arms folded across his chest, and his eyes studying in every glorious detail V'Lar's peacefully sleeping form.

As she quietly slumbered, a smile lazily spread across his face. How could anyone have ever believed Vulcans were cold-blooded automatons? He'd been expended by her ardor, had been ignited by her passion in ways that only one other human, he suspected, may have known. Making love to her had been the most intensely meaningful experience of his life. When she'd said she'd bound their bodies, minds, and souls, he'd not only had known that to be true; in his heart, he'd felt it, too.

"Jason," she murmured as her body shifted in their bed in search of him.

"I'm here, aisha," he said as he slid under the sheets and drew her voluptuous figure into his arms.

"Are you undamaged?" she whispered.

He cocked a wry eyebrow at her unseen in the darkness. "Yes. Why do you ask?"

"I was...distressed that I may have injured you. When Vulcans experience the _Kali-farr_, it clouds our reason, buries our logic. As you have seen, the coupling can be very ardent, almost animalistic. Indeed, it is not uncommon for us to claw our mate's skin, to draw their blood with our teeth, to crack bones in the mad flight to ecstasy, particularly if we are in the initial stage of the _plak tow_."

"How long does the whole ordeal take to run its course?"

"Normally, our tempers flare and we may become irritable for a standard week during the initial stage. Then another week in which we are under the influence of the _plak tow_."

"I see," he said.

"Most often, our passions tend to be somewhat controlled if we are not suffering from the blood fever. However, aisha, for reasons as yet unknown to me, I have behaved as if I have been under the _plak tow's_ thrall even though it is not yet my time."

He said nothing; however, she must have detected his uneasiness through their connection.

"Have I disturbed you with this conversation?"

"No, I'm fine. Loving you, means accepting you, all of you, particularly the Vulcan aspects of you, beloved. Don't worry, V'Lar, you didn't frighten me last night. In fact, I felt protected and cherished by you more than I ever have by anyone else before!"

Her eyes gleamed at him in the dark. "I am gratified by your trust in me, aisha. Please understand I would never knowingly harm you."

He hugged her close just as something tickled the edge of his consciousness, "Baby, what does '_Kali-farr_' mean?"

She cocked one eye at his term of endearment before she answered him. "It means the 'life bond.' I desired for you to be my mate as you desired to be mine. We are now mated for life. Jason, I love you," she said, using the human words for the first time in their relationship while she struggled to control the heartfelt feelings that swelled inside her breast. Then she leaned over and held up both of her fingers to her life mate and he pressed his against hers. Moments later, when their fingers parted, she stared adoringly into his eyes and caressed his cheek with her fingertips. "You are my alpha and omega, my everything," she whispered. "There shall be no others for us. We are one, now and forever."

In response, he leaned over with eyes brimming with unshed tears of joy and kissed her deeply. Then when oxygen became an issue for them, he ended the kiss and whispered against her lips, "I wish I could spend more time showing you how much I love you, my darling wife, but I suppose it's time to get up and start our day." He knew she was reining in her passion to keep it from erupting to the surface again and sought to help her maintain her control by focusing her attention on her duty.

"Unfortunately, that is true," she murmured.

He smiled at her. "You know, I'm not a Vulcan. I can't switch off my feelings for you and loving you like this only makes it harder for me," he noted as he drew his sheets around her and swung his legs over the edge of the bed to begin his trek toward his bathroom.

Suddenly, his confession seemed to trigger all the lust she'd apparently believed she'd had under control. With a deep growl she tossed aside the bed clothes and knelt behind him on the mattress. Then she wrapped her arms loosely around his shoulders and gently nipped the side of his neck while, to his immense pleasure, she rubbed her ample breasts against his back.

Defenseless against her onslaught, he capitulated to their mutual need. So he stood and leaned over slightly while reaching behind him with his right arm to hold her body in place against his back and rushed to the bathroom.

"Where are you taking me?" she whispered, her words hot and heavy with passion, as she continued to relish his flesh with her tongue and nibble at him with her teeth.

"To engage in a little multi-tasking," he drawled as he carried them both into his shower and said to the computer, "Initiate shower, aqua-mode, forty-three degrees Celcius." He was satisfied with her gasp as she glided down from her perch until she stood under the balmy spray. "Now, we can get ready for work and take the edge off at the same time."

"How?"

"Like this," he hissed. Then he whirled to face her and in one quick motion pulled her slick body against him. Suddenly, he lifted her left leg, curled it over his hip, and pressed her back against the warm and wet shower wall. Immediately thereafter, he joined their bodies as the slightly hot water cascaded over their heads and rushed down along their torsos.

Now, with eyes wanton and brimming with longing, she slid one hand over his back, the other to grip his bottom, and said in a husky voice, "Oh, I see. Please proceed."

"Yes, ma'am!"

#

Forty-five minutes after they'd finished their incredibly sensual shower, Tynen and V'Lar strode down the corridor of Deck 6 toward the mess hall. After a dozen or so crewmembers congratulated them and wished them well, he observed, "I guess Shron and Rex have been busy little beavers. It seems the whole ship knows about us."

"It is difficult to maintain secrets on any starship; I recall an instructor in the Academy had stated the only thing faster than a subspace message is shipboard gossip." As he chuckled at her quip, she added, "Although general knowledge of our affairs is unavoidable, I would prefer the details of our relationship to be kept between ourselves."

He settled his hand in the small of her back as he guided her forward. "Hey, I wasn't the one who yelled in the shower," he drawled.

Even though she shot one of her 'looks' at him, she still allowed Jason to guide her into the mess hall where they were to have breakfast. In the past, he'd never touched her in this manner when they were in public. However, now they were to be married, both Shron and Rex had told them that it would be better for morale, particularly among the human crewmembers, to see her meet her human husband half way on occasion rather than to always bow to her wishes.

So, they strolled through the crowded room, he cloaked within his command persona and she enshrouded by her Vulcan calm. As they approached the reprocessors to order their meals, the room went from the boisterous cacophony of a myriad of conversations to silence then back to whispers. Although it only took a few seconds, it felt like it had been minutes as they approached an empty table and sat down with their trays.

He shrugged and said, "The first public appearance is always the worst. After that, they'll get used to us being a couple."

She nodded. "I know. I am simply not used to having my private life on display."

He said nothing and dug into his meal. What was there to say? Although he understood her need for privacy, as the captain, he knew he was always on stage, especially in front of the crew. That was something that went along with being in the big chair.

#

After they'd finished their breakfast and were on their way to the Bridge from the mess hall, the alert whistle sounded over the intercom. "Bridge to all decks. Condition alert." The couple stopped and stared at the intercom speaker while Etana's voice continued to sound throughout the corridor. "All decks, condition alert. Captain Tynen, Commander V'Lar to the Bridge."

Walking briskly now, the pair entered the turbolift and directed it to proceed immediately to the Bridge by using their command override codes. Moments later, the lift deposited them onto the bustling nerve center of the _Valkyrie_. "Lt. Mazan," the captain barked, all business now, "report!"

The lovely red-haired Ktarian officer said, "Captain, it's the USS _Challenger_. She was apparently attacked by a Minbari vessel."

"Lieutenant, order the rest of the in-system fleet to alert status and put the _Challenger_ on the main view screen."

"Aye, sir," Mazan said crisply.

"Captain," his first officer reported, "The _Challenger _is a refitted _Constitution_-class starship currently on patrol in the Celes system."

He nodded and flashed a psychic message into her mind. _'Thank you, aisha.'_

_'You are welcome,'_ she responded in kind while Lt. Mazan activated the screen to reveal a Federation starship's smoke-filled bridge with several blown consoles.

"Mayday, mayday! This is _Challenger_! Does anyone read us?" a frightened woman yelled through the view screen. Her face was smudged with ash and her tunic was off, leaving her garbed in a dirty white turtleneck shirt.

"_Challenger_, this is _Valkyrie_. Captain Tynen here."

A relieved look swept across the _Challenger_ officer's face. "Captain, this is Lieutenant Frost, sir."

"Are you currently under attack, lieutenant?"

"No, sir. Not at the moment. We think we drove them off. However, we're practically dead in space right now, basically sitting ducks if they decide to come back!"

"Frost," he said in a soothing voice, trying to calm the young woman, "where is your captain and what's your status?"

"Sir, the captain was injured during the attack. The doctor is working on him in sickbay. Right now, the first officer is in charge. He left me in command of the Bridge while he's down in engineering working with our chief engineer to keep the warp core from going critical. As for our status, our mains are offline. We still have power from our impulse reactors and the impulse drive is operable. We also have emergency power available from our fusion reactors."

"Frost, give me your position."

"We're in Sector 035 Quandrant 126 mark 72."

"That is four point seven-eight hours from our current position at maximum warp, captain," V'Lar offered.

Tynen grunted his acknowledgement and stared at the screen. "Tell me, lieutenant; what happened to your ship?"

"Celes IV contacted us about some aliens who might have been Minbari on their colony world. Some of them tried to escape in a small scout ship but the ground station used its transporters to beam them out of their ship and take them prisoner. We'd just come out of warp four A.U.'s from Celes IV in response to the station's subspace transmissions when a spatial anomaly opened nearby and a big Minbari angel fish ship spat out of it loaded for bear. They wrecked both nacelles and caused a feedback loop which affected the warp core. Then another volley managed to penetrate our shields and damaged the bridge, causing a beam to fall on top of the captain."

"How did you drive them off?"

"Commander Hansen took command and we returned fire when the Minbari vessel swung around to finish us off. You should have seen it, sir! We gave as good as we got!" Tynen couldn't help himself, he smiled at her enthusiasm which was a whole lot better to see than the terror she'd had on her face moments ago. "Our torpedoes punched a hole through several decks of their ship and the phasers sliced away their main guns and damaged one of their tail fins. After that, I guess they'd had enough because they veered off, trailing debris and expelling bodies into space. Then another anomaly formed and the ship accelerated into it. We haven't seen them since then."

A grim look clouded the captain's face at the thought of anyone, even Minbari, spending the final moments of their lives trying desperately to breathe in the cold, hard vacuum of space. "How many casualties did you suffer, lieutenant?"

"I don't know, sir. We're still counting them. Many of the severely injured are from engineering. We do know at least one of our phaser crews was wiped out to the last person."

"Acknowledged, _Challenger_," the captain said, his voice subdued. Then he turned to Mazan. "Etana, open a channel to the rest of the fleet."

"You're on, sir."

"This is Captain Tynen. The USS _Challenger_ has just suffered an attack by a Minbari vessel. The _Challenger_ is damaged but she's survived. I am ordering the _Sato_ and the _Billings_ to leave immediately for Sector 035 Quandrant 126 at maximum warp. Captain Tapell of the _Billings_ shall be in command when the _Billings_ and _Sato_ arrive. Captain Tapell, your orders are to recover the Minbari bodies floating in space near the _Challenger_ for study and use your best discretion to assist the _Challenger_ as you see fit."

Lanei's console then beeped for her attention. "Captain," the ensign said, "the _Sato_ and _Billings_ have acknowledged receipt of your orders. The _Sato_ is now underway; the _Billings_ is maneuvering out of the asteroid field before she engages her warp drive."

"Thank you, ensign," he said. Then he announced over his shoulder, "Re-open the channel to the _Challenger_."

"Aye, sir," Mazan responded.

"Lieutenant," the captain called out to the screen, "we're sending the _Sato_ and the _Billings_ to rendezvous with your ship. The _Sato_ should arrive within five hours and the _Billings_ shortly thereafter. Can you and your crew hold down the fort until then?"

Frost nodded fervently at the screen. "I think so, captain. Commander Hansen just contacted the Bridge and said they managed to reroute the plasma coolant to keep the core stable, so we don't have to eject it."

Tynen smiled at her. "That's good news, lieutenant. When he has the opportunity, please give Commander Hansen my compliments both for his defense of your ship and his actions in stopping a potential warp core breach."

She smiled brightly at him. "I will, sir. Thank you, sir."

"Don't mention it, lieutenant. If you have any further problems, don't hesitate to contact us."

"Aye, sir!" she exclaimed. "_Challenger_ out," she said and the view screen went dark.

Tynen paused in thought for a moment before he turned to Mazan. "Etana, close the channel to the rest of the fleet."

"Aye, sir. Channel closed."

"Opinions?" he asked the room.

"Captain," Mazan said, "I believe the Minbari ship may be operating as a large explorer."

"Why do you say that, Etana?"

"Well, sir, we've received reports from Starfleet Intelligence as well as the Klingons that a number of Minbari agents were detected and captured on several planets. According to SI, the first world was Ramatis III. Although it's not a Federation member; officially it's a neutral planet, the ruling class there has served as mediators throughout the Beta Quadrant. Apparently, the Minbari believed they could blend in easily on such a cosmopolitan world. However, within the space of a day, three of their operatives had been captured and turned over to the Federation contingent there."

"Go on," he said.

"Another report, this one from the Klingons, stated a few had been caught on Rura Penthe."

Commander Rex gasped at that news. "Rura Penthe?"

Vox shook his head sullenly. "Those poor bastards."

"Indeed," V'Lar noted. "Apparently, the Minbari operatives who the Klingons managed to capture there were tortured then executed."

"Now," the captain observed, "we have several more of their operatives in custody near a system close to Regulus where a mother ship apparently attempted to retrieve them."

"I believe, captain," V'Lar said, "that Lt. Mazan's speculation in this matter is sound. It seems this particular ship is functioning as a reconnaissance vessel. Most likely, its primary mission was to evaluate the threat potential of the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire while the enemy's main fleet eradicated the Regulus colonies. However, what this vessel has likely uncovered, to the Minbari's chagrin, is the fact that Humans are extremely abundant throughout the Federation. Further, although I am uncomfortable with employing speculation myself, it would be reasonable to assume its secondary mission is to survey our space and install navigational beacons to guide their ships when they utilize their faster-than-light drive."

Tynen nodded. "But their ship has been severely damaged, according to what Frost had said. So where would they go to effect repairs?"

"I do not know, captain. However, it is highly probable that they have used the anomaly to travel to a place outside our normal space-time continuum, perhaps something akin to subspace, to hide while they repair their vessel."

The captain stood and turned to Mazan then V'Lar. "Good work, you two! Etana, while V'Lar and I are conducting the Incident Command meeting, I want you to send a report of our findings to Admiral Mendez for his review. Also, I want you to transmit a general order to all Starfleet and Klingon assets in this and the surrounding sectors to maintain a look out for that Minbari warship. If any ship larger than a scout finds it, engage immediately and destroy it."

"Aye, sir."

Tynen then turned to his second officer. "Rex, you have the Bridge."

"Aye, sir," the Trill officer replied.

Then with that, he and V'Lar walked side-by-side through the doors that led into the main conference room.

#


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Author's note: a major plot point in the story was enhanced by the addition of some new text in the first part of Chapter 5 where V'Lar explains the _plak tow_ to Tynen. You may want to take a look at it before you go any further in the story. Also, this chapter has some violent themes in it, so please consider this a **warning**.

#

_During the Incident Command meeting on that dreadful day, several times, I'd caught Tevik staring at her like a man desperate for water in a vast desert who'd stumbled upon a verdant oasis. Although I was alarmed by the looks he'd given her, I was afraid to heed the warning bells in my head because I feared my emotions might have led me astray._

_Because I fought against my instincts, what happened later that evening will haunt me for the rest of my days. Soon after, when she'd shared her experience with me through a mind meld, I'd seen how he'd come to her quarters an hour before she had to attend the party in our honor..._

#

As V'Lar lit the final meditation candle, the sound of silence that encircled her granted her some peace. Taking the time to prepare for Tevik's arrival, she breathed deeply seeking to center herself. Finding the nexus of calm she possessed had been difficult lately, perhaps due to the passion of her _Kali-farr_ with Jason. However, she'd noticed that when she'd joined the Vulcan captain yesterday in an attempt to soothe his _katra_, discomfort for the both of them appeared to be present as well. She could not quite understand why that had been so; however, something, at the time, felt...'wrong.'

A moment later, her entry chime sounded. "Enter."

Her door slid open to reveal Tevik standing in the corridor. He crossed the threshold into her quarters and locked his strangely glittering eyes onto hers. "Greetings, V'Lar."

A tremble cascaded down her spine at the sight of him. "Greetings, Tevik."

He took his position on the meditation mat directly across from her and she said, "I can only spend a standard hour with you this evening. I have other obligations tonight and must leave immediately after we have completed our session."

Tevik nodded. "You have meditated with me and it has been beneficial. I appreciate your assistance even in the short period of time left to us."

"Very well," she said. "Let us begin."

Soon, they both appeared to have entered a deep meditative state, although she still had some trouble relaxing. She stared into the candle's flame but rather than providing her a tranquil focal point, it called out to her blood, making her long for her mate.

An hour later, she ended their session, more disturbed than refreshed. She noticed that Tevik appeared to be unsettled as well. Indeed, his eyes looked to be wild, which began to distress her even more. Standing up, she prepared to show him out. "I apologize, Captain Tevik, but I must go now. If you have too much trouble relaxing tonight, I trust your medical officer can provide you with medication to help you sleep."

Tevik stood as well and moved closer to her. "Thank you."

She guided him to the door and he followed closely behind her. "I will coordinate my schedule to join you tomorrow. Perhaps I can be of further assistance then."

She heard his next words like the hiss of a cobra. "Yes. You can assist me," his hands grasped both of her arms and whirled her around to face him. "But not tomorrow-I need your assistance now, V'Lar." Then one hand gripped her arm like a vise while the fingers of the other locked onto the pressure points of her face. Now, she finally understood what her instincts had been trying to tell her all along.

She struggled to tear herself from his grasp, while both her mind and voice cried out, "No!"

He pressed her back and pinned her against the wall. Then he chanted, "My mind to your mind," as he sought to bend her will so she would accept him.

She was stalwart and desperately fended him off but the force of his _Pon Farr_ nearly overwhelmed her control. As his other hand pawed at her clothing, she pleaded with him. "Tevik, stop! I am already bonded to Jason Tynen! Do not dishonor yourself and your family like this. It is not our way."

He scowled at V'Lar, his utter disregard and fury pummeling her mental shields. "You!" he spat the words at her, "who would dishonor our people, all of Vulcan by giving yourself to the dark Human! I can _smell_ him all over you, even now! You demean our ancestors, our very way of life by bonding with an uncouth Earther! For that, you shall now service me!"

V'Lar tore her face away from his hand and gritted her teeth. "No!" she growled, outraged that this bigot dared to slander her beloved life mate. However, before she could launch an effective counterattack, her head snapped in the opposite direction after he viciously struck her right cheek and the corner of her lip with the back of his hand. Tevik's brutal blow caused her to stumble over his outstretched knee. She tripped and tumbled to the deck, stunned more by the force and rage that battered her sensibilities due to his blood fever rather than from the blow itself. Then suddenly, before she could recover, he sprang on top of her, knocking the wind from her lungs. As she struggled to catch her breath, he straddled the gasping woman and flung her onto her back, unconcerned whether or not he injured her at all. In response, she attempted to buck him off of her body and to grapple with him to keep him from pawing her torso, but he was relentless. Then he managed to slip another violent blow past her defenses, making her see stars. Now, vaguely aware of him attempting to rip her tunic open, her mind cried out to her mate. _'Jason!'_

#

Tynen froze. One moment, he was going over the plans for enlarging his quarters with Janja. The next, he raced out of the Engineering Deck at a dead run into the corridor. In seconds, he reached the turbolift and snapped, "Computer, command override, Tynen Charlie One-Niner-Six-Zero!" Almost immediately, the turbolift opened with two startled crewmen inside, staring at their captain as if he was an avenging fury in search of its prey. The captain leaped into the lift and yelled, "Deck 5!" As the car rose, he punched the intercom button and barked, "Security, this is Tynen! Meet me at Commander V'Lar's quarters, now!"

Punching the switch closed, he muttered, "Come on, come on," while he completely ignored the other two people inside with him and waited impatiently for the lift to arrive at its destination. Then when the doors opened, he sprang out of the turbolift and sprinted down the corridor. Fifteen seconds later, he reached V'Lar's door and keyed in his command override. As the doors swished open, what he saw inside immediately made his blood boil. He found Tevik straddling a battered V'Lar, attempting to rip the clothes from her body.

Too furious for words, Tynen flashed inside and seized the Vulcan male by the collar of his robe with his left hand. Dragging the other man to his feet, Jason spun Tevik around and punched him in the jaw so hard, it sent the Vulcan sprawling across the room.

Everything appeared to be tinged in red to him as he stalked after Tevik, who'd rapidly recovered from the human's unearthly blow. Narrowing his eyes at the _Valkyrie's_ captain, Tevik snarled like an animal. "Desecrater!" he screamed and rushed at Tynen with the gleam of madness in his eyes. Wanting nothing less than to kill the other captain for what he'd almost done, Tynen lashed out with a palm strike to the other man's sternum. The blow had preternatural force behind it, halting Tevik's charge as if he'd run headlong into a brick wall. It sent the Vulcan stumbling backwards into V'Lar's transparent aluminum window. However, instead of striking the crystal-clear metal, Tevik unexpectedly passed through the panel as if he was a ghost.

Tynen froze in his tracks as he watched the other man clutch at his throat through the window while Tevik struggled to breathe in the cold vacuum of space. Moments later, the Vulcan ceased moving and grew still. Then the body of the _Edmond Fitzgerald's_ captain began to twirl slowly in a ballet of death as it vectored away from the _Valkyrie's_ hull.

Turning away from the gruesome sight, Jason dropped down beside the wounded woman lying on the deck. As he gently reached out to her, a pair of security officers arrived. "Whatever you do, don't go near that window!" he warned as he pointed to the transparent aluminum panel. Then he said quietly with his mind, _'Aisha? It's me. Tevik can't hurt you any more. You're safe now.'_

_'Beloved?'_ her mind whispered back to him as his heart broke when he took in her bruised and battered face. He glanced up at one of the security officers, Ensign Donnelly, he believed, and looked to the young man for a reason for this madness. In response, Donnelly simply shook his head at his captain.

Murmuring words of comfort now, Tynen drew her unresisting body carefully into his arms and rose to his feet. "Donnelly, have the transporter chief beam that...man out of space. Send the body to sickbay. Also, secure this room. Don't let anyone inside and keep everyone out until further notice. Call the Bridge and have Commander Rex see me in sickbay. I'm going to take her to see Shron now."

"Aye, aye, sir," Donnelly said. "I'll call the doctor and tell him you're coming."

Tynen nodded at the ensign and marched out of the room into the corridor.

Two minutes later, he entered sickbay and called for Shron. It was an unnecessary step; security had already notified the physician of the situation. The doctor and his nurse directed the captain to take her to the first bed. Moaning slightly, V'Lar attempted to curl into the body of her mate as he placed her gently on the bed. Talking softly to her, he eased her back down flat on the bed and held her hand while Shron examined her with his instruments. Tynen continued to hold onto her hand even after the doctor had pressed the hypo spray to her neck and she'd fallen asleep.

Now Shron went to work. He and his nurse cleaned her up and Tynen saw that the damage wasn't as bad as it had initially appeared. Most of the bleeding had been a result of V'Lar having bitten her own tongue. Several cuts were prominent on her face, particularly near her right cheek and the corner of her lip.

"Who did this to her?" Shron asked, his voice more of a growl while he used his dermal regenerator to heal her injuries.

"Tevik," Tynen said simply.

"Is he dead?"

"Yes."

"Good." Shron observed.

When the doctor placed the regenerator down, he filled a hypo with antibiotic and assured Jason she'd sleep for several hours. Shron also told the captain he should try to get some rest while she recoverd from the attack but Jason simply couldn't leave her side. He'd failed her, allowed her to come to harm. He couldn't leave his mate now!

As he continued to hold her hand, he felt the bile rise up his esophagus and scald the inside of his throat. Like a trusting fool, he'd banked on that damn Vulcan because his people were supposed to be so 'honorable' and 'civilized.' He shook his head and muttered, "I should have gone with my instincts about that bastard from the start!"

Now he had a real mess on his hands. He pinched the bridge of his nose with the fingers of his other hand and winced. Mendez was going to have his head for this debacle. "Is this how you keep a low profile!" he imagined the admiral was going to bark, "by spacing a fellow Starfleet officer?"

Tynen sighed heavily. A tiny part of him wished V'Lar was conscious so she'd provide him with her counsel. Then when he realized how dumb that last thought had been, he cursed at himself. Indeed, it would be a whole lot better to wish this terrible thing had never happened! _How would it affect their relationship?_ he wondered. Things had been so good between them; he was terrified what this attack may have done to her. For all her Vulcan control, his mate was a sensitive woman and he didn't know how she'd respond to such a devastating attack.

Just then, the door to sickbay swept open and Rex strode purposefully inside. "Is V'Lar all right?"

"Well," Shron began, "she has some bruising, a slight fracture of the jaw, and a few lacerations. I've stopped the bleeding and will use the bone knitter to repair the fracture. I'll then use the ultrasonic stimulator to bring down her swelling. Physically, she should be fine by tomorrow. Mentally, your guess is as good as mine. The attack on her was quite brutal. I just don't know what effect it may have had on her mind until she regains consciousness."

Rex nodded to the doctor then turned to her captain. "Jason?"

He gave her a thin smile and murmured, "She'll be all right, Salayna. She'll be fine, you'll see."

"I know, Jason," she said gently. "V'Lar is strong. She'll be okay."

Tynen nodded sullenly.

"Jason…we recovered Captain Tevik's body. Security is bringing it down to sickbay in a few moments."

That news seemed to draw his attention away from V'Lar for a moment. "Rex, I want you to get a science team into their spacesuits and have them use a tricorder and a spectrum analyzer in V'Lar's quarters. Have them start by the window and work their way toward the door. I want to analyze every square inch of that room. I want to know how Tevik phased through that window and I want to know it yesterday."

"Aye, sir," she said then briskly exited the sickbay.

After Rex had left the room, Tynen turned to the doctor. "Shron, what could cause Tevik to beat V'Lar the way he did and try to sexually assault her?"

"The only thing I know that could make a Vulcan do something like this is if he was going through the Vulcan mating process."

"Maybe," Tynen murmured, "except if he'd been affected by the blood fever, why didn't he demonstrate any signs of it during the past few days? V'Lar once told me that Vulcans become irritable and short tempered during the initial phase. Three days ago, I saw nothing of the kind from him. He didn't show any signs yesterday, either."

Shron shrugged at him. "If that's the case then I don't know why he acted the way he did in her quarters."

Something danced on the edge of Tynen's consciousness, something he'd heard during his time in the Section, an old story involving a former operative…an operative who'd been assigned to Earth's first Warp 5 starship.

"Shron!"

"Yes, Tynen?"

"I want you to look into the medical records of the NX-01 _Enterprise_. There may be an entry about a Vulcan being affected by something that simulated the blood fever. Then I want you to perform an autopsy on Tevik's body. I want you to scan it down to the molecular level. Don't leave any stone unturned, do you understand? Then I want you to record your findings onto a single tricorder and isolate it from the main computer."

"What?"

"You heard me. If this mess was caused by the people I have reason to suspect, doing everything exactly as I tell you to may be the only thing that keeps you alive."

The Andorian narrowed his eyes at the captain for a moment before he nodded his agreement. "All right, brown skin. I'll do it your way."

Tynen smiled at his friend. "Thanks, Shron."

#

_Although the transparent aluminum had bothered me, that wasn't what had made me go ballistic. Deep space is filled with a ton of weird stuff. There are a myriad of spatial anomalies, such as miniature wormholes, the Briar Patch, and a host of other freaky things. However, Tevik's Pon Farr thing had truly irked me. Why? It'd been too neat...too tidy…too Section 31._

_Unfortunately for them, their 'cleanliness' had awakened the dormant Paladin._

_Perhaps they might have one chance to seek mercy from God...in the moments before I came for them._

_Because from me, they would receive none._

#


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

_I'd dreaded making the call to the _Edmund Fitzgerald_ to tell Tevik's first officer his captain was dead. I'd told him his captain had apparently died because of an unknown spatial anomaly and that my science officer had begun her investigation to determine the cause._

_While I'd waited in sickbay for V'Lar to recover from Tevik's assault, Rex had reported that her science team hadn't found anything wrong with either the window or the hull in V'Lar's quarters. When I'd asked Salayna what'd caused Tevik to be ejected into space, she'd guessed that his body may have undergone a form of phase inversion which had allowed it to pass through solid matter. If that had been the cause of his demise, my science officer had no idea what'd instigated the mishap. _

#

"Tynen?"

The captain awakened to the sound of Dr. Shron's voice. He'd fallen asleep, holding V'Lar's hand as she rested on her med-table. He yawned and said, "Sorry about that, Shron. I must have dozed off for a few moments."

"No need to apologize, my friend," the doctor observed. "You needed the rest. I wouldn't have disturbed you except…"

"Yes?"

"Well…I searched the NX-01's medical logs as you asked. I found a single entry written by the famous Denobulan, Dr. Phlox. In 2153, while the _Enterprise_ surveyed an uninhabited planet, the doctor and Sub-Commander T'Pol apparently picked up a microbe from a marsupial they found on the planet. It seems the organism had gotten under their skin and been somewhat difficult to eradicate. Other than that, I found nothing in the records that involved treating a Vulcan for anything other than phase pistol burns, plasma injuries, or lacerations."

At first, the captain simply stared at Shron. "Gotten under their skin…" he muttered. Then he recalled how his Vulcan had gotten almost as close to him as his own skin during their shower and that memory triggered something that had been buried in his subconscious. He called out to the room, "Computer, display the image of Sub-commander T'Pol of the NX-01 UES _Enterprise_ circa 2153 on the main viewer."

When the image of a petite yet well-endowed Vulcan woman in a skin-tight uniform with succulent lips and enchanting eyes shimmered onto the screen, both men studied the lovely woman quietly for a several moments.

"They allowed her to have the run of their ship in _that_ uniform?" the Andorian asked, breaking the silence.

Tynen cocked a wry eyebrow at his friend. "I guess so."

Shron stared at the image again then shook his head. "It's a wonder they managed to get anything of substance accomplished."

The captain smirked at his CMO. "Apparently, Captain Reed may have been one of the men who'd been...shall we say, distracted by the good sub-commander." At his friend's confused glance, Tynen added, "Captain, then Lieutenant Malcolm Reed, was a Section 31 operative even when he was assigned to the _Enterprise_. The stories about him said he'd always had a thing for T'Pol—"

"Can't say I blame him," Shron observed, interrupting Tynen's train of thought.

"As I was saying," Tynen drawled and shot a mock glare at the Andorian, "Reed had told a few of his old mates in the Section a story about how she'd once tried to seduce him after she'd been infected inadvertently by a microbe. The way I'd heard it, he'd confronted her in a spacesuit after she'd escaped from the ship's decontamination chamber. It's my understanding that she'd practically tried to climb into his suit with him."

"Truly?" Shron stared at T'Pol's image with an envious look on his face. "That opportune _hybor_!"

Shaking his head, Tynen said, "Unfortunately, he didn't turn out to be such a lucky bastard with T'Pol, Thae'lak. You see, he had to stun her with his phase pistol to keep her from dying from the microbial infection. If he'd opened his suit, he'd have been infected, too."

The Andorian shrugged. "Well, in her case, taking off the suit might have been worth the risk!"

The captain regarded his friend with a confused look. "Why are you so attracted to Ambassador T'Pol? For God's sakes, she must be more than two hundred standard years old or so now!"

Thae'lak thrust out his chin defiantly and sniped, "Well, even at her age, she's still an _athlirith_. Besides, she's not freakishly tall like most Vulcans and starship captains I know!"

"Okay, shorty, can we get back on track here!" Tynen snapped while he rolled his eyes and Shron shot a dirty look at him. "Is the microbe catalogued in our databanks?"

"Yes," the physician noted, his air of professionalism regained. "I've already scanned Tevik's body and tasked the tricorder to compare my findings with the _Enterprise's_ records…hmm."

The captain glanced over his friend's shoulder. "What did you find?"

"This is interesting…I've found traces of something similar to the microbe but it's unnatural."

"What do you mean, 'it's unnatural?'"

The Andorian glanced up at his friend with an annoyed glare. "Just what I said! It's close to the naturally-occurring microbe but there are markers that show it's been modified; basically engineered in some lab!"

"An artificial microbe?" the captain whispered.

"Yes." Shron continued to study his readout. "The engineered microbe was tailored to incubate over the course of two or three days in the victim's body and not be transmitted to anyone else unlike the original organism. However, as with the case of the natural organism, mating wouldn't have alleviated the blood fever symptoms caused by the microbe. Only a pathogen targeted to the microbe would have eradicated it. Whoever engineered this thing designed it to breakdown shortly after the host died or the pathogen destroyed it, leaving no traces behind. Indeed, if we hadn't known to look for the original microbe in the _Enterprise_ files, under normal conditions, in two hours we'd never have detected it because the microbe would have broken down into simple amino acids."

Tynen narrowed his eyes in thought. "However, in Tevik's case, he was flash frozen by the vacuum of space and his body's biological processes immediately ceased."

Shron nodded in agreement. "Yes, something the designers of the engineered microbe couldn't have foreseen."

The captain stroked the stubble on his chin for a moment. Then he asked, "How would someone have infected him with the microbe?"

The doctor shrugged. "I don't know. I didn't find anything that looked like a puncture wound on his body. I suppose it could have been transmitted via a liquid of some kind."

"You mean he may have drunk it?"

"Possibly."

The captain had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. He'd tried to kill a man who'd been already infected by a microbe that simulated a Vulcan's blood fever...a man who'd had no control over his actions. A man who had done something to warrant the undivided attention of Section 31 because only the Section would have had the knowledge and the means to pull off a scheme as nefarious as this.

But why set Tevik up in this manner, to have the Vulcan captain be driven mad enough to assault V'Lar and face off against a former operative with the ability to take on...

Tynen's face hardened. The anger he felt now was surely hotter than the energy radiating off of Regulus itself.

They'd played him. Those bastards had played him. They'd placed his bondmate, the woman who meant more to him than life itself, in mortal danger and had played him to do so. He narrowed his eyes and swore they were going to pay dearly for this. However, right now, he needed to let this thing play out a little bit more. He had to figure out what their objective was and use it to help him determine which targets to terminate with extreme prejudice.

Perhaps they'd recall the adage they'd used in reference to him right before they died: have gun, will travel.

"Brown skin?" Shron asked, probably unsettled by his friend's intimidating silence.

"Give me a moment, Thae'lak," the captain said. Then Tynen thought hard, falling back into his operative mode like a duck to water. Tevik had to have ingested the microbe three days ago…around the time of the water discussion during the Incident Command meeting when Tevik had gotten so bent out of shape about the glass of water…and…

_Oh hell! _In that moment, Tynen had a damn good idea who'd infected the poor bastard.

But first things first, as fear began to restrict the movement of his lungs. "Shron! Scan V'Lar! We've got to make sure she wasn't infected!"

The Andorian's eyes opened wide at that distressing thought. He dashed over to her med-table and recalibrated his diagnostic equipment. Then he carefully scanned the peacefully sleeping woman. Tense minutes later, Shron sighed. "She hasn't been infected, Jason. She's all right."

As the tightness in his chest eased off, his mate began to stir on her med-table. She breathed slowly and deeply, appearing to relax while she murmured his name, "Jason…" Then, without warning, she gasped as the muscles in her body clenched while she struggled against an unseen enemy that she believed still held her fast.

Quickly now, her mate gently caressed her unblemished cheek with the back of his fingertips. "Aisha, you're safe now. You're in sickbay. Thae'lak and I are here with you; you're going to be all right."

She focused her attention on his rich baritone, and gradually, little by little, the knots in her body began to uncoil. Soon, both of her eyes crept open at a snail's pace and her gaze joined with his. "My noble champion," she whispered to him, her voice soft and low, "warden of my honor and my life."

Her supreme faith in him nearly brought him low as unshed tears flooded his eyes. "I'm so sorry, V'Lar. I should have trusted my instincts about Tevik. I should have protected you from him."

She shook her head and reached up to cup his cheek in the palm of her hand. "No, I should have recognized the signs of his blood fever." At her words, Tynen shot a warning glance at Shron silencing the doctor, while he used his training to shield the knowledge about the microbes from her to protect her from feeling guilt for Tevik's death. Then she said, "You are completely blameless, beloved. I told Tevik of our bond and utterly rejected him. He was outraged that I would dare to choose a human over a Vulcan. That is when he began to strike me." She shivered then and he allowed her to draw strength from him through their connection. "I rebuffed him…it is our way, if a woman so chooses. We may select a champion to fight on our behalf and the battle can serve to purge the _plak tow_. Unfortunately, the combat often ends in death for one of the combatants, so the practice has become disfavored in our culture."

Tynen nodded at her in understanding. "Did you call to me through our bond to answer the challenge, V'Lar?"

She nodded, a shameful expression casting its cloud upon her face. "I did not wish for him to defile our bond, aisha. I did not want to allow his depredations to jeopardize our love. I was so distraught, I called out to you in my despair, failing to realize I had set you upon a maddened Vulcan male whose strength most likely was doubled by the fury of his _Pon Farr_!"

Tynen blinked thrice when she'd said that. If that was true, he wondered, how in the hell had he been able to fend off Tevik without a phaser rifle before the other captain had taken his unscheduled and ultimately fatal EVA?

"Aisha, can you find it in your heart to forgive me for placing you in such grave danger?"

He sighed deeply and nodded. _Who would have thought Vulcans, the most logical species in the Federation, would take something so elemental like mating and make it so complicated and potentially deadly?_ he mused. _Perhaps they had a streak of Klingon in them from somewhere in their antiquity?_ Although his mind pondered those questions, to soothe her distress, he whispered, "Hush, beloved. I would face anything or anyone to keep you safe. Do not concern yourself regarding my safety, all right?"

She nodded sullenly.

"V'Lar, one thing I don't understand is why did he want to hurt you like that?"

"If Tevik had known that you and I were bondmates, he most likely would not have chosen me. He could have then sought out other Vulcans. If he had been among them, they would have secluded him with either his chosen or a surrogate and performed the appropriate bonding rituals for them. Her serenity would have calmed his impulses and assisted him with controlling the emotions that sought to consume him. Indeed, their bond would have allowed his heightened sexual impulses to trigger his mate's or surrogate's own desire increasing her sexual drive in response…" Then, just as she relayed the information to Tynen, her eyes opened wide with the dawning of terrible comprehension.

"V'Lar? What is it?"

When her gaze locked onto his, her look was haunted. "Enhanced sexual drive, Jason...I should have known. The woman who is the focus of the _plak tow_ always experiences a heightened sexual drive. Remember when I had said I behaved as if I had acted under the _plak tow_? The reason for that response is it prepares our bodies for the rigors of mating."

He frowned at that. "So, are you saying the reason you were so passionate with me during the past three days was because you were the focus of Tevik's mating urges?"

She nodded, almost imperceptibly. Suddenly, her eyes locked beseechingly onto his and she began to speak to him in the hallowed halls of their minds. _'Throughout the entire trial, you were there, my beloved, in my Vulcan heart, defending my body, mind, and honor. No man could ever enter the portions of my katra I have entrusted to you, for they are imprinted with the flames of our love. Now, you have battled for my hand and stand victorious. In circumstances such as these, where a man has triumphed in mortal combat to win his woman through the ancient rites of the_ Kun-ut Kali Fi, _the bond reverts to the kind of union shared by my passionate ancestors who lived before the Reformation. Thus, as it has been written that our couplings shall continue to be intense and carnal even outside the heat of the plak tow, so shall it be done.'_

Tynen's right eyebrow nearly reached his hairline at the sound...well...the thought of that revelation. _Wow...that sounds kind of...no...scratch that...it sounds freaking hot! Maybe, for once, Vulcan sexuality might work in my favor!_ he mused to himself.

A moment later, she regarded him solemnly and he understood he should grant her his undivided attention. "Aisha, my vow during our _Kali Farr_ binds me to you even unto death," she stated formally. "You are my mate, Jason Tynen. Know that I am yours, my champion, now and forever, so long as you shall have me."

Chastely, like the knights of old, he gently lifted her right hand to his lips and planted a kiss just below her middle knuckle. "All I ever really wanted was you, V'Lar. I will have you, aisha, always."

At that moment, Jason and V'Lar both failed to notice Shron's circumspect departure as the cares of the world around them faded away for a short time.

#


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

_After Shron released V'Lar from sickbay, I took her back to my quarters to rest. I tucked her into bed and gave her a sedative to help her sleep. Then I prepared to make a late night call to get the answers I needed._

_I guess it really was like riding a bike. I'd never forget the skills I'd learned in the Section, particularly how to bypass security systems. Although Federation, Klingon, and Romulan technologies were quite advanced, their sophistication often allowed gaps that one could exploit. _

_Nobody on the_ Elizabeth Dehner _noticed me as I clung to the top surface of _Eir_, our medical shuttle, in a stealth environmental suit, one of the few items I'd kept on hand after leaving the Section. Once I was aboard the medical cruiser in its shuttlebay, I activated her intraship transporter mode with my waldo, a positronic control module operatives used to infiltrate starships, whether ours or another power's. They're pretty handy. They place security systems in bypass loops to hide when we infiltrate a computer or other device on board a ship. _

_Once I had the proper coordinates, I simply beamed into the target's quarters and waited._

_Fortunately, I didn't have long to wait._

#

He'd allowed her to finish her business in her bathroom before he confronted her. As she'd begun to remove her tunic, he allowed her to see his reflection in her mirror-covered closet door so she wouldn't think he was some kind of perverted voyeur if he chose to let her live afterwards.

When her gaze locked onto his in the mirror, she couldn't help herself. She gasped loudly, her eyes almost as big around as saucers. Intriguingly, though, instead of screaming or demanding why he was there, she inhaled and exhaled, over and over again, as if the simple, repetitious act of breathing reassured her of her continued existence.

Then she bowed her head, a gesture of surrender. "Excuse me, Paladin," she said, her voice a soft whisper, her tone meek and compliant. "Would it be all right for me to kneel on the floor?" She tried to make it sound like a suggestion rather than a demand.

He shrugged so she could see his reaction in her mirror. It wasn't a bad suggestion and he was interested to see where she was going with this. "All right," he said.

In seconds, she was on the floor, arching her spine, trying to stretch the tension out of her muscles. She turned her head toward him and gave him a weak, tentative smile that somehow managed to reach her eyes. "Thank you," she offered.

"Don't mention it," he muttered. Then he moved so he was just a few inches behind her, close enough for her to feel the heat from his body. "I believe you know why I'm here, Doctor Hunter."

She nodded. "Yes. I knew you'd come. He said you would."

He narrowed his eyes at the reflection of her face. "Who told you I would come for you, doctor?"

"Jack...Jack Gretsky."

He carefully schooled his reaction so she wouldn't notice the effect that name had on him. Now the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place. "How do you know him, doctor?"

"H-he trained me when I was recruited to the Section. Gave me this mission."

He studied her carefully and saw something telling in her reflection. "Were you intimate with him?"

Her eyes met his then and he knew. "Yes."

"You love him, don't you?"

She merely nodded in affirmation.

He sighed inwardly. _Crap,_ he fumed. _I can't kill her now and that bastard banked on that!_ When they'd developed their unlikely friendship so long ago, Jack and he had sworn they'd never go after each other's lovers even if a sanction had been taken out against either of them by the Section. However, for the moment, she didn't know that and he decided to push that fact to the limit. "What did he tell you about me, doctor?"

"He'd told me you are the most dangerous being he's ever known. He'd said you'd been a legend in the Section, you'd never failed a mission and if it required someone to die, the target was already dead, they'd just not known it yet. He'd said I had to be completely submissive to you because that would be the only thing to keep you from killing me. He'd told me you didn't like to kill females and that I needed to answer every one of your questions truthfully so you wouldn't decide to make an exception in my case."

He regarded her with a cold fire in his eyes. "And why shouldn't I make an exception, Doctor Hunter? Your actions placed the safety of my wife in jeopardy. She was severely beaten, almost raped, or worse. Also, a man died because you infected him with something that destroyed his ability to control his actions!"

She slumped forward, dejected, her head deeply bowed. "I'm sorry for everything that's happened to you, V'Lar, even Tevik."

"Tell me everything," he growled.

"Jack gave me the microbes. He told me to pass it to Tevik in his water three days ago."

"Why did he want you to infect Tevik?"

"He said Tevik was working with the Romulans!"

Tynen blinked twice at that. "And...?"

She raised her head toward him and said, "Jack said Tevik had planned to incapacitate his crew and ram the _Edmund Fitzgerald_ into the Klingon command cruiser when their flotilla arrives here later today. Tevik had hoped his attack would destroy the new alliance against the Minbari! According to Jack, Tevik's forefather was V'Las, the leader of the Vulcan High Command during Archer's time. V'Las had conspired with a Tal' Shiar agent named Tulok to try and reunify the Vulcans with the Romulans under Romulan rule. However, Archer and T'Pau had helped the Vulcans remove V'Las from power before he could start a war between his people and the Andorians. Tevik apparently had been brainwashed by admirers of his forefather to work for the Romulans. So they'd decided to use him in this plot against the Klingons."

Jason idly stroked the stubble on his chin as he considered what she'd just said to him. "So why would Jack want to use the microbes to infect Tevik rather than simply arrange an 'accident' to happen to man?"

"He said having Tevik imprint on V'Lar would force him to tangle with you. He believed you'd kill him after he attacked V'Lar under the Vulcan mating rites and that him dying that way would not raise suspicion and provide powerful people on the Vulcan ruling council with a plausible cover for the death of a man who's so well-placed in their society. Also, for some reason, he said he owed you one, the fix was in with the Vulcans, and, later on, you'd appreciate the favor."

Tynen's eyebrow lifted in surprise at that revelation. "What did he mean by that?"

"He said ask for the Vulcan _chargé d'affaires_ on Earth to be in the room when you and V'Lar contact Starfleet about Tevik's death and you'd see." Then she looked at him with frightened eyes. "How did you manage to space Tevik anyway?"

Annoyed by her accusation, he snapped sullenly, "I didn't space him!"

"Then how did he end up floating in hard vacuum?"

"I...I don't know," he whispered. Then he hardened his look at the woman. "Is that all?"

"Well...the last thing he'd said was, 'tell Paladin...I'll be seeing him real soon.' And he said, when he saw you, he'd explain everything."

Tynen's brow furrowed deeply in thought at that. _So he only wants to talk?_ he mused. _I can hardly wait to see how he'll pull this off!_ Returning his attention to the terrified woman who'd knelt at his feet, he said, "Thank you, doctor. Oh," he said offhandedly, as if it were an afterthought, "I won't kill you unless you do something foolish such as mentioning our time together with anyone except Jack Gretsky. Do we have an understanding?"

Rebecca Hunter nodded somberly. "I understand. I won't cause you any trouble."

"See that you don't." Then he smiled politely at her and said, "Oh, don't bother to get up! I'll just show myself out." Then he left her on the floor, exited her room and used his waldo to activate her ship's transporter beam.

#

"Captain, it's Admiral Mendez. He's ready to take your call, sir," Etana announced.

After he'd return from having his little 'chat' with Hunter, Tynen had agonized over making this call while V'Lar rested peacefully beside him in their bed, They'd decided to make the call together and had asked for Mendez to arrange for the _chargé d'affaires_ of the Vulcan diplomatic compound in Sausalito to be present in his office the following morning. Afterwards, when they'd told Shron and Rex about the call, both of their friends had wanted to be with them to provide pertinent information and moral support.

Now, he said, "Thank you, lieutenant," and turned to his life mate who stood near the aft science station with Shron and Rex. "Commanders, are you ready?" he asked, indicating they should proceed ahead of him into his ready room.

"Of course, captain," his executive officer said smoothly, the disguise of her discomfort with the pending conversation firmly in place as the quartet entered his office.

After the door swished closed behind them, he approached his desk and transferred the subspace signal to the large view screen attached to his wall. Moments later, it winked on and they saw Mendez sitting behind his desk. "Good afternoon, admiral," Tynen said.

"Hello, Jay...good afternoon, commanders."

She nodded at the old man while Rex and Shron expressed their greetings. Then Tynen asked, "Is the current Vulcan _chargé d'affaires_ with you, sir?"

"She's here as you'd requested," Mendez indicated. The man pressed a button and the view expanded to reveal an elder Vulcan woman cloaked in rich robes, her petite form almost entirely concealed except for the impression that she was well-endowed. Although the corners of her piercing eyes were somewhat seasoned by the passage of time and her hair was snow-white, her lips still appeared to be as luscious and ripe as a woman who's half her age.

Tynen shot a surreptitious glance at Shron and witnessed the doctor's smug smirk. He had to hand it to his old friend; when he's right, he's right. No question about it; T'Pol was still an _athlirith._

"It is my understanding there has been an incident," the ambassador stated in that oh-so-proper female Vulcan voice that the captain found to be so alluring.

"Yes, ambassador," V'Lar said as she stood with her hands clasped behind her back. "Two days ago, Tevik, the captain of the Starfleet cargo vessel _Edmund Fitzgerald_, came to me complaining of his inability to enter into a meditative state. I agreed to assist him and attempted to do so. However, yesterday evening, Captain Tevik physically assaulted me, forcing Captain Tynen to engage in hand-to-hand combat to protect... my honor." T'Pol's left eyebrow threatened to reach Mendez's ceiling when she'd heard the end of V'Lar's statement; however, she said nothing, allowing V'Lar to continue with her report. "During their altercation, we believe a currently unknown spatial anomaly manifested itself in some fashion and caused an unprotected Captain Tevik to be accidentally ejected into outer space."

Rex cleared her throat and added, "Ambassador, admiral, at the moment, we only have pure speculation to go on, but it appears some type of phase inversion caused Captain Tevik to pass through the hull, resulting in his death."

Mendez's eyes widened at this bit of news. "There was no violent decompression?"

"No, sir," Tynen answered.

"No one else was exposed to vacuum?" Tynen shook his head in response. The admiral winced and appeared to be gearing up to fire another question at them when T'Pol took a tentative step toward the camera and interrupted the flag officer. "Just a moment, admiral," the ambassador said with a glance at Mendez. Then she turned back to address the screen. "V'Lar, why did Tevik assault you?"

V'Lar's game face was flawless, her demeanor serene as she spoke, even though Tynen sensed the slight edge of her discomfort through their bond. "Tevik was under the thrall of the _plak tow_, ambassador. When I informed him I could not assist him with his situation because of the bond I share with another, he was unwilling to acknowledge my right to honor my commitment."

T'Pol then glanced at Jason and saw something that made her control slip minutely, as an astounded expression flashed across her angular face . "V'Lar...didst thou invoke the rites of _Kali Farr _with this other male?"

"I did," V'Lar announced without any hesitation, almost with pride. "And to defend the hallowed rites, I invoked the challenge."

While the humans, the Trill, and the Andorian silently observed, they witnessed the dispassionate veneer of the two women from a culture far more antediluvian than any of their respective races fall away to open a window into Vulcan's savage past. "Through the ancient rites bequeathed to us from time immemorial," T'Pol pronounced, "thou possessed the right to claim _Kun-ut Kali Fi._"

"Yes," V'Lar said.

"Jason Tynen was thy choice?"

V'Lar nodded. "Yes."

T'Pol narrowed her eyes at her fellow Vulcan apparently studying V'Lar through the view screen. Then the former XO of the first starship _Enterprise_ turned her scrutiny to the captain of the star cruiser _Valkyrie_. She gave him a hard look for several seconds before her features seemed to relax somewhat. "Commander V'Lar, Captain Tynen, I apologize for this intrusion into your privacy, but I must ask you both several sensitive questions."

Tynen glanced at V'Lar and she nodded to him. Then he turned back to T'Pol and said, "We understand, ambassador. Please proceed."

T'Pol asked, "V'Lar, please tell me what kind of relationship you have with Jason Tynen?"

"Jason Tynen is my life mate, ambassador."

"Thou performed the _Kali Farr_ with thy captain?"

"That is correct."

T'Pol turned away from the screen and glared at Admiral Mendez for several seconds while she seemed to gather her thoughts. Then she whirled around to face the screen once more. "Captain Tynen, please tell me what kind of relationship you have with V'Lar?"

Jason's first impulse had been to tell T'Pol to mind her own business but V'Lar telepathically told him to respectfully answer the elder woman's question. Sighing, he said, "She is my wife, Ambassador T'Pol. Our bodies, our minds, our hearts, our souls are joined. I am committed to love, honor and protect her even unto death."

T'Pol silently regarded Tynen and V'Lar for several brief moments before her body snapped into an Academy-perfect parade rest, her hands clasped firmly behind her back. Then she spoke to them, her voice clear and strong. "It is my understanding that you intend to wed in a shipboard ceremony?"

Tynen nodded. "That's true, ambassador. Doctor Shron will be my best man and Commander Rex shall be my aisha's maid of honor."

T'Pol's eyebrow climbed slightly toward her hairline at the captain's use of a Vulcan term of endearment for his bride. "Please allow me to save you both the trouble, as your people are wont to say, captain." Then T'Pol suddenly closed her eyes and uttered a series of Vulcan words in a manner that sounded like a liturgy. A confused Tynen shot a glance at V'Lar and she tenderly reached for his hand. When her fingers entwined with his, he felt her sense of amazement in response to T'Pol's oration.

Moments later, T'Pol fell silent, bowed her head, and declared in Federation Standard, "We beseech the infinite spark that formed the universe to consecrate the bond of matrimony shared by thy vessels, Jason and V'Lar, as they pledge to cherish their bond and each other even after the very stars themselves have fallen from the firmament." Then T'Pol opened her eyes and favored them with a glance awfully like V'Lar's look of 'mild bemusement.' "By the power vested in me both by the planet Vulcan and United Earth, I pronounce you husband and wife." The former _Enterprise_ officer hesitated for only a moment before she drawled, "Captain, you may kiss the bride...if you must."

Tynen smiled slyly at the ambassador then turned to his bride and gave her a tender, somewhat chaste kiss. Although he felt that V'Lar was a bit embarrassed by the public display of affection through their bond, he also detected how gratified she was to have their relationship officially sanctioned by her people.

"V'Lar," T'Pol said, "an official record of this ceremony shall be forwarded to the Hall of Records in Shi'Khar as well as with Starfleet, is that not so, admiral?"

"Of course," Mendez confirmed.

"As for the incident involving Tevik, under Vulcan law, Jason Tynen could not be charged with murder. As for your account that Tevik was unwilling to recognize your bond, V'Lar, the demands of your honor have been satisfied by the actions of your champion and Tevik's shame shall be borne by his family." Then T'Pol's expression seemed to grow wistful. "V'Lar, I had the honor of knowing your second foremother, she whose name you now bear. She was my inspiration during my formative years and though, at the time, I could not admit to my captain that your foremother was my hero, Jonathan Archer's insight was accurate in that regard. Near the end of her life, the _Enterprise_ rescued her from the Mazarite government. Before she left our ship, I recall she had said she sensed a great bond between Captain Archer and me, a bond of trust, respect, and friendship. She believed it bade well for the future relations of our two peoples. Your predecessor was quite prescient and your bond with Jason Tynen is the proof of her convictions. As Ambassador Soval said to me when I joined a ship of untested humans who welcomed me into their family, I now say to you V'Lar of Vulcan and Jason of the planet Earth-you have chosen...an interesting path. May you both live long and prosper."

"Peace and long life to you, ambassador, admiral," both husband and wife said to the elder Vulcan and Mendez.

"Congratulations, Jay and V'Lar. Now, get back to work!" The admiral offered with a friendly smirk. "Mendez out."

After the screen faded to black, Jason turned to his bride. "Tell me I didn't just have a strange dream and we actually got married over subspace radio?"

She shrugged slightly and said, "We did not dream the prior sequence of events. I would not have a dream in any event because Vulcans do not dream. However, although circumstances were admittedly unusual, we were indeed wed by Ambassador T'Pol via subspace radio."

As the captain sighed, Shron quipped, "Brown skin, I'd say that's a sure sign the honeymoon's officially over!"

However, in reality Jason knew, through their bond, that his wife was merely teasing and assuring him that Shron was dead wrong about the state of their post-nuptial affairs.

#


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

_At that moment, I wanted nothing more than to take V'Lar into our quarters and make love to her. Unfortunately, our passions had to wait._

_The Klingons had arrived._

#

"Bridge to all decks. Condition alert. I repeat, condition alert," Etana's voice sounded over the intercom speaker.

The quartet in the ready room raced out onto the Bridge. "Lieutenant Mazan," the captain barked. "Report!"

"Sir, three Klingon battle cruisers and six Birds of Prey along with a pair of Klingon cargo vessels have just entered the system." Then an alarm on her console tweeted. "We're being hailed, captain."

"Lieutenant," he said, turning to Mazan, "I want you to keep an eye on the _Edmund Fitzgerald_. If she breaks orbit for any reason, let me know immediately."

She gave him a puzzled look for a split-second then regained her composure. "Aye, sir."

"On screen," he directed as he sat down in his chair.

Soon, an image of a large, mature Klingon male with a ridged head seated on a throne-like chair shimmered onto the main view screen. The Klingon was inside a vast room with utilitarian equipment bearing extreme angles and bathed in a harsh, red-tinged light. "I am General Kang, commander of the IKS _K'tanco_."

Tynen blinked once. _Kang! The famous Klingon captain! It was like meeting their version of James T. Kirk!_ he mused. Trying desperately not to grin like a loon, he said, "I am Captain Tynen of the USS _Valkyrie_."

"Ah, Tynen, I have heard much about you. It seems we share a mutual acquaintance."

Tynen nodded at the Klingon legend. "I assume you are referring to your brother, sir."

The general's smile revealed sharp incisors. "Indeed, I am, captain. Klagh desires to see you as soon as possible. He is still in command of the _Pagh_, one of my family's battle cruisers."

"I know her well, sir. The _Pagh_ is a fine vessel as is fitting for a House of K'naiah warship."

Kang appraised the young captain with an appreciative eye. "Most impressive. You have, as your people might say, 'done your homework,' Tynen."

"Thank you, general."

The Klingon was about to respond when someone said something to him off-screen, drawing his attention momentarily. Then he turned back to the screen and said, "Excuse me for the interruption, captain. I have just been reminded we have much to discuss concerning our journey to the entrance of the so-called 'subspace conduit' to rendezvous with the rest of the expeditionary force. In order to facilitate that discussion, I wish to invite you to dine with us onboard the _K'tanco_. Mara, she who is my wife and my first officer, insists."

"General," Tynen said, "we accept your lady's gracious invitation. May I also bring she who is my wife and my first officer? In addition, I would also like to bring my tactical officer with us as well."

"Why, by all means, captain," Kang purred.

"Please inform Lady Mara that my lady requires a vegetarian meal. Lieutenant Mazan and I, however, require no special consideration for our repast."

"Very well, captain," the Klingon said magnanimously. "Oh, you won't mind if a few of my old friends and my brother join us for dinner?"

"Of course not, sir. What time would you like us to arrive?"

"Let us say, in two standard hours?"

Tynen nodded at him. "That's acceptable."

"Good," Kang announced. Then, almost as if it were an afterthought, he added, "Oh…and if you would feel safer by bringing a security team with you, we would be most willing to accommodate you."

Tynen responded with a deadly smirk. "Oh, general, that isn't necessary. A security team would simply get in my way."

Kang narrowed one eye at him through the screen and chuckled lowly. "Well said, captain. I look forward to meeting you and your officers. Kang out," the Klingon snapped and the view screen faded to dark.

"Captain," Mazan asked, "is beaming onto a Klingon battle cruiser a wise course of action, sir?"

He regarded her with a wry grin on his face. "Why, lieutenant, haven't you heard the old Earth proverb?"

"What proverb is that, sir?"

"Never refuse an invitation from a Klingon."

"Captain," V'Lar's dry yet alluring monotone purred, "I believe the phrase is, 'never refuse an invitation from Willie Mays."

"Really, V'Lar," he drawled while giving her a mock look of exasperation "why in Surak's name would you ever associate Klingons with baseball?"

#

An hour later, Tynen, V'Lar, and Mazan found themselves materializing onto the transporter pads of the _K'tinga_-class battle cruiser. Waiting there for them, other than the transporter operator, were Kang and three other Klingon males, a regal-looking and attractive Klingon female who must have been Kang's wife, Mara, and a male Trill. "Welcome to the _K'tanco_, Captain Tynen!" Kang announced.

Tynen returned Kang's smile. "Thank you, General Kang, for extending your gracious hospitality to us."

Then after a round of formal introductions, Tynen was as happy as a pig in slop. Not only was his old adversary/sometime friend, Klagh, there, Kang also had General Kor, the mad warrior, and General Koloth, the schemer, on board, too! The Trill male, he'd never met before, but he certainly knew of Ambassador Curzon Dax by reputation. Apparently, Dax had grown close to all three Klingon legends, so much so, Lady Mara and Kang had named their firstborn son Daqs in honor of the Trill. For this voyage, though, the young boy's parents had left him home at their estate with Lady Mara's mother.

Before Tynen's party was led by the Klingons to a large conference room that had been reappointed as a dining room, the captain disclosed the location of the hidden 'Light Brigade' to Kang. When Kang shot a wary look at him, Tynen explained that he didn't want to disclose the brigade's position in Regulus VI's rings over an unsecure channel. Kang simply smiled and nodded. "You adapted Korrd's stratagem to use against the Minbari?"

"I steal from the best, sir," Tynen quipped.

Kang laughed heartily at that. Then he shook his head and smiled a deadly smile. "Tynen, you **are** a dangerous man, aren't you? I suppose it is fortunate we haven't crossed swords before; I would most certainly regret having killed you."

The captain of the _Valkyrie_ returned Kang's smile in kind. "The feeling is mutual, Kang."

Kang said nothing. He only chuckled while Kor cackled at the both of them as if he were a mad scientist from an old twentieth century video thriller.

Minutes later, they were all seated around the table, V'Lar by her captain's side and Etana seated directly across from Tynen while Kang and Mara were seated at opposite ends. Dinner was served and the stewards kept food in motion and water, in deference to V'Lar, flowing.

At that moment, Lady Mara apparently decided to open the discussion. "Captain Tynen, tell me, how many survivors did you find on Regulus III?"

The captain's response was polite yet subdued. "We found only a little more than three thousand survivors, my lady."

"What irony, captain," Kor noted with glee. "Here we were, our empire seeking to make real peace for the first time with you Humans and a short while later we run across others who want you as dead as we Klingons had once desired." The elder Klingon smiled at him with sharpened teeth. "Isn't the universe truly glorious?"

Tynen held his tongue when his wife read his emotions and advised him telepathically how impolitic it would be for her husband to tell Kor where the Klingon could shove his 'glorious universe.'

"What do you know about the Minbari, Tynen?" Koloth asked.

Commander V'Lar answered for her captain. "According to Captain Spock's report, they are a passionate people. He stated, in many ways, their passion reminded him of the Romulan emotional state of mind."

"Yes, Spock conversed with the Minbari," Koloth growled. "He may have understood their passion, but like you, I suspect, Spock couldn't feel the burning lust for destruction that permeated that Minbari's soul. Understand this, Tynen," the elder warrior snapped as he stared at the captain, "these people want you and your entire race dead! They don't merely want to defeat you; they want to kill you all!"

"Now, now, Koloth," Kor said, attempting to soothe his old comrade's ardor, "do not overly excite yourself, my friend. You cannot blame Lady V'Lar or Spock for their inability to feel such hatred. They're Vulcans. They could never fully comprehend such feelings." Then he shot a sly look across his shoulder at Etana. "Men like Kirk and Chekov do," he added, causing Mara to gasp at the name of the ensign who'd tried to assault her years ago on the USS _Enterprise_ before Captain Kirk had managed to stop him. Tynen could see that Kang was livid over Kor's use of the former navigator's name in front of his wife. However, the mad one did not appear to acknowledge Lady Mara's distress or her husband's anger as the Klingon stared at the Human captain with the eyes of a zealot. "And you, Tynen...yes, I see you understand as well. You know how that Minbari _pe'taq_ feels, don't you? '_Neca eos omnes. Deus suos agnoset._' Humans have said that in your bloody past, didn't you? You've said it in regards to your own kind!"

Mazan shot a hard look at Kor then. "Captain," she murmured, preparing to defend her commander with her dying breath if he gave the word, "what did the general say to you?"

Tynen narrowed his eyes at the madman. "Nothing of import, lieutenant. It's an ancient Earth saying. He said, 'Kill them all. God will know His own.' General," Tynen drawled, reining in his temper, "I must congratulate you on your knowledge of an Earth language that has been dead for over a millennium."

"Kor," Commander Klagh growled, "Jason Tynen is a great warrior. He is also my friend! Not long ago, he and his frigate, the _Hippolyta_, joined with my ship and a Tholian vessel to destroy a powerful extra-galactic marauder that threatened to eradicate the population centers of several planetary systems along our borders. Tynen, as did our Tholian comrade who now serves in the Black Fleet, fought nobly by my side. One could not hope to find a more stalwart ally than this dark Human. Tread lightly!"

"Klagh, do you not understand? I do not question this man's courage! He beamed onto a Klingon battle cruiser with his wife, bearing no weapons, and showing no fear! He could demonstrate to all our people much about the honor a Human possesses. However, this thing with the Minbari; this is war! We are Klingons! We are always prepared to do what is necessary." Then he added, "I only question whether the Humans are prepared as well!"

"We will do whatever we need to do to win this conflict," Tynen said. "Genocide, though, isn't necessary."

"Why is that, captain?" Dax asked.

"Because if we kill them all, they won't know they've been beaten, ambassador. And the dead can't learn anything. After what the Minbari did to Regulus, we will make them pay for what they've done and I want them to learn that they should never mess with Humans ever again!"

"And that may be the lesson for the ages," Kang noted to a now subdued dining room. "Well said...warrior," Kang noted to the captain.

"Thank you, General Kang." Then Tynen glared at Kor. "Do you still question our resolve now, Kor?"

Kor simply smiled mysteriously at him. "No, captain. Particularly when you, the _real_ you, had stripped away your veneer and decided to come out…and play. Wouldn't it be glorious if Kirk took a page out of your book, too?" Suddenly, Kor laughed like a madman while Jason Tynen studiously ignored the annoying Klingon, embraced the aggression he now felt down deep in his soul and channeled it toward wolfing down a fistful of writhing creatures.

#

_Thankfully, it wasn't too long before the evening had finally come to an end._

#_  
_

"Thank you, Captain Tynen, Lady V'Lar, and Lieutenant Mazan for an…educational evening," Lady Mara said diplomatically after the Klingon couple had led Tynen's party back to the _K'tanco's_ transporter room.

"We must do this again soon," Tynen said woodenly.

Kang laughed heartily and clasped the younger man on his shoulder. "Oh, don't be so morose, Tynen! You fought well with your words tonight. Koloth and I both know that Kor talks too much at times. However, good friends accept one another's weaknesses and use them as strengths. When we need an orator, that's when Kor really shines. Besides, he's not a bad warrior to have on hand when the chips are down."

"Lady V'Lar?"

"Yes, Lady Mara?"

"What my husband just said about his incorrigible friend goes double for you and me as to our husbands. Please try to keep that in mind because your husband was sufficiently provoked yet he chose not to kill anyone, hmm?"

Tynen spied the masked smile in his wife's eyes. "Thank you, Lady Mara. I shall endeavor to remember your words of wisdom whenever I am confronted with the fact that he, who is my cherished husband, cannot help that he is only human."

Kang smirked at that. "No one is perfect, Lady V'Lar," he quipped. Then the general turned his attention to Etana and said, "Lieutenant Mazan, it has been an honor to meet such a courageous young woman. Your zeal to defend your captain was most impressive. My brother may call upon you in the near future. Thank you for a most enjoyable evening."

"Thank you for having us on your vessel, general," Tynen's tactical officer offered with mild concern showing in her cat-like eyes. Then the _Valkyrie_ officers stepped onto the transporter platform and Tynen nodded to Kang.

"Energize," the general said and the human, his Vulcan wife, and his Ktarian lieutenant were beamed back home.

#

After the trio materialized in the _Val's_ transporter alcove, Tynen winced from the splitting headache that had manifested after the _discussion_ during dinner.

"Thank God that's over," he muttered.

"Did you see the way they ate?" Mazan exclaimed.

"I would not say our own behavior would distinguish us in the annals of interstellar tact and diplomacy," V'Lar observed dryly.

"Well…" Tynen grumbled, "I'm going to stop off at sickbay and have Shron give me something for my head. Then I'm going to crawl into bed and, if I'm lucky, die. Before that happens, though, let me know if there's another way we can screw up tonight, all right?"

"Good night," Etana murmured as her captain staggered toward sickbay with his first officer offering her strength as support.

#


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

The next morning, Tynen woke up before his wife and after he finished using his lavatory, he threw on his robe and padded into his living room suite to read various reports concerning the ship's status.

A half an hour later, he heard V'Lar get out of bed to use his bathroom. Shortly thereafter, she appeared in the doorway that led into their bedroom, wearing his Academy sweat shirt and her underwear. She stretched and watched him silently for several moments before she entered the suite and crossed the floor to stand over him. "Is this seat taken?" she asked, her look indicating she was focused on his lap.

He smiled thinly at her. "It's always free for you, love."

He placed his PADD on the sofa cushion and she plopped herself down on top of him. They sat there, watching each other and as she gently stroked his temple, she whispered so quietly, he strained to hear her words.

"Is something troubling you, adun?"

He shot a confused look at her. "Adun? What does that mean?"

He saw the hidden smile in her eyes. "It means 'husband.'"

"I see. And how would I say 'wife' in Vulcan?"

"Aduna."

His smile turned into a grin. "Of course, that would be...logical."

"Indubitably," she agreed then softly planted a kiss on his cheek. "My question, however, remains unanswered."

He sighed. "I need to tell you some things about what had happened to Tevik and why. You may become distressed from what you'll hear."

She studied his face for a few seconds before she said, "I detect through our bond that you are apprehensive about telling me..."

"Yes," he whispered.

"Why, Jason?"

"Because..." he said, throwing all caution to the wind, "I'm afraid when I tell you, you will regret marrying me. Hell, you'll probably regret even knowing me."

She cupped his cheek in the palm of her hand, leaned forward and softly pressed her forehead against his. "You are my Lancelot, my champion, my adun. Whatever you tell me, no matter how distressing it may be, nothing you could ever say would cause me to cherish you any less than I do at this moment." Then she gently kissed his lips and breathed, "Tell me."

He spoke lowly to her. "Everything I'm about to tell you must stay between us. You can never discuss it with anyone."

She nodded. "I understand."

"Okay," he breathed. "Tevik's _Pon Farr_ was not the result of his natural cycle. He was infected by a bioengineered microbe that simulated the effects of the blood fever."

Her control slipped for a brief moment to show her horror at the news. "Who would commit such an egregious act?"

"Section 31."

She blinked several times at that. "Section 31?"

"Yes."

"Why would your former associates infect Captain Tevik?"

He sighed deeply. "Tevik was compromised by the Romulans. The Section had him under surveillance for quite some time. The Tal Shiar assigned Tevik to ram the _Edmund Fitzgerald_ into Kang's battle cruiser when she arrived here yesterday. Think of it, V'Lar! If Tevik had succeeded, we'd have had to fight the rest of Kang's task force with our in-system fleet. Both sides would have suffered substantial casualties and the budding alliance with the Klingons to take on the Minbari may have been irretrievably shattered."

She glared at him, distressed by the very notion that anyone would ever conceive of such a plot. "But if the Section believed this to be the case, why did they not assassinate him?"

"Assassinating a Starfleet captain or arranging an 'accident' might raise suspicions and have too many people asking questions. Besides, his family is very prominent and they have the resources to look closely into his death. However, if the Section made it appear as if he died as the result of a mating challenge, no one would be the wiser. And, even better, you have the microbes push him so far over the edge that he acts dishonorably during the challenge and brings shame to both his memory and his family."

She listened attentively to all of what he'd said and shuddered. "When he chose not to recognize our bond, his act would have been reprehensible to my people." She had a somber look on her face. "Can the microbe be eradicated by medical treatment?"

He nodded. "Once Shron knew what to look for, he developed a pathogen to treat it."

She closed her eyes then. "So I was responsible for the death of a sentient being."

"Hey!" he snapped, causing her to regard him with sorrowful brown eyes. "I'll have none of that, V'Lar! Even though he wasn't in control of himself, he assaulted you! He wasn't only seeking to mate with you; he sought to punish you. You had no way of knowing any of this when you called out to me. And if anyone was responsible for his death, it was me, not you."

"No," she said, drawing him into a fierce hug. "You were under the thrall of the _Kun-ut Kali Fi._ You fought to save my honor." Now, her voice was strong and certain. "You are blameless in this."

He shuddered in her arms. "I can't be certain of that, aisha!" he confessed.

"What do you mean by that?" she whispered.

"The Section targeted him knowing he'd be drawn to you. They knew that with the artificial blood fever driving him, I would protect you."

"How could they know that, Jason? Tevik is…was a Vulcan. He was much stronger than you. He could have killed you and in my desperation to protect our bond, to my everlasting shame, I called out to you, sending you to face certain death."

"Think back, V'Lar. Did he overpower me? Have _you_ ever been able to overpower me with your strength?"

She blinked three times as she considered his question. Then she stared into his eyes. "No, in fact, I cannot recall an occasion where I overpowered you. How can that be?"

"I don't know how I do it, V'Lar. I never really wanted to know because if I told anyone else about it, they might have turned me into some kind of lab rat; you know, their scientists would have taken away my freedom to study me. Somehow, I have this ability to slightly surpass the strength of any humanoid I face in hand-to-hand combat. I think it's one of the reasons I succeeded as a Section operative. That's why the Romulan woman I killed had no chance against me. That's why you had trouble with me when we escaped from the baryon sweep." He paused momentarily to gather his thoughts. She said nothing; she simply stared into his eyes as he continued his declaration. "W-when I saw what Tevik did to you...I lost my mind. I dragged him off you and all I wanted to do was kill him. Right after that, there he was floating in space. Somehow, his body phased through the window and he was dead just as if a genie had granted my wish." Then he glared at her, his eyes wild. "Was it me? Did I kill him with another ability I possess? Am I some kind of monster, V'Lar?"

She shook her head. "No, my beloved, Section 31 killed him. Its operatives were the ones who poisoned him. And you are no monster. You are my adun, the light of my _katra_. But I realize my words are inadequate to truly express what I feel for you. Allow me to show you."

He leaned toward her and sensed her fingers as they pressed against his temple, the side of his nose and jaw. Then, almost immediately, his psyche encountered the exceedingly structured and rational mind of his wife. Like a tranquil sea, her thoughts were serene and calm with occasional waves of emotion that crested yet swiftly rolled under into the glassy-smooth surface of her mind.

The waves formed when she reflected on the concepts of beauty, honor, curiosity, and, surprisingly, love. And he knew, after being in her mind, that she loved him completely. When he risked himself, his career, to save her, that was when she'd come to see him as both beautiful and honorable. That instance had served to pique her curiosity about this mysterious human with the stars in his eyes. Her fascination, over time, grew. Not long after, she'd begun to bond with him, leaving the conventions of her people behind and starting them down the path that had led to this moment in time.

As the meld continued, he showed her what she'd meant to him – how his first impression of her comported with Shakespeare's vision of the lovely Titania straight out of A Midsummer Night's Dream, followed by a year of collaboration and the building of a friendship that slowly evolved into longing which then flared into the intensity of his passion for her now and forever.

Minutes later, she uncoupled the tips of her fingers from his face and terminated the link. Then she kissed him deeply. When their lips parted, she whispered, "No matter the challenges that come our way, I shall always cherish thee, my noble champion."

"I am forever yours, aisha," he responded, his heart bursting with his love for her.

"Come," she said simply. She stood up, took him by the hand, drew him to his feet and led him back into their bedroom. She guided him down onto the mattress, crawled into bed on all fours above him and said in a low, husky voice, "How do I love thee, adun? Let me count the ways." As she spoke to him, an image of Vulcan females on their hands and knees, just as she was right now above him, looking seductive and alluring with their cheeks and lips flushed the ripe green of late spring, suddenly flashed into his mind.

V'Lar slipped open his robe and lowered her face to drag her nose across his chest. Her nostrils flared and she breathed deeply. "I desire thee," she whispered. Then her mouth suckled one of his nipples for several moments, causing him to gasp. She released the chocolate-colored morsel of flesh and confessed, "No, my longing for you surpasses mere desire; rather, I adore thee." Now, she turned her attention to his other nipple.

His body writhed beneath her. At that moment, he glanced down and spied the fire in her eyes. His pulse quickened as she brushed the tip of her nose along his sternum and her tongue trailed along the path that led to his navel.

"I have always admired your intelligence," she whispered, her voice continuing to deepen into a sensual growl. She teased his body with her lips, teeth, and tongue while she used her voice to seduce him. "From the start, I was drawn to you, to your generosity of spirit, your sense of fairness, your kindness."

Suddenly, her face hovered above his. She flicked out her tongue against his lips, drawing a soulful groan from him. Then she peered deeply into his eyes. "I want thee."

Before he could respond, she silenced him by covering his mouth with hers. Meanwhile, her two fingers glided slowly over the flesh of his body, snaking along his torso. Moments later, she gently nudged his legs apart and slid her lithe body between them.

"I love thee," she confessed as her breasts grazed his chest and his civilized veneer was swallowed by his id. Single-mindedly, she stroked his chin with her fingertips, teasing his lips open so she could snake her tongue into his mouth with a soft moan.

As she deepened the kiss, once again, she placed her fingertips against his psi-points, entered his mind, took his body and whispered, "Let me worship thee, my husband," as their meld reflected the union of both their physical and psychic worlds.

#

_After our early morning tryst, I completely understood why a Vulcan male would kill to mate and bond with a certain Vulcan female._

_Once we'd left our cabin and my wife's smoldering sensuality was once again safely secreted behind her meticulously-crafted emotionless facade, we had some breakfast and met Kang and Lady Mara when they'd beamed aboard the _Valkyrie_. The Klingon couple had joined me for the Incident Command meeting while V'Lar had visited with Janja to finalize the modification of our quarters. Apparently, Janja had figured out a way to remove the wall that currently separated our quarters to provide V'Lar with a meditation area and a closet as well as combining our lavatories into a very large bathroom. Since Rex had been still concerned about V'Lar's transparent aluminum window, we'd expand our new suite up to the window and turn her quarters into a low priority storage area. Of course, Salayna's people wouldn't give up trying to determine what had happened to Tevik. _

_Around 1100 hours, the _Kolm-An_ class assault ship, USS _Axanar_ had warped into the system and come alongside the _Val_. The new platoon had beamed over to our ship and taken a few hours to get squared away while several work bees transferred some heavy cargo to our shuttle bay, including several planetary shield modules for Alliance Earth. _

_Later that day, V'Lar and I had been scheduled to orient the new platoon members and several other people who'd transferred over from the _Axanar_. Unfortunately, I hadn't been given any prior warning about the nature of two of our transferees until I'd received a call from Admiral Mendez at noon time._

#

"Good afternoon, Jay," Mendez said when his image appeared on Tynen's desk monitor. "How's married life treating you?"

"It's great, sir. V'Lar is a wonderful woman; I'm lucky she'd have me."

"You know, my wife says the same about me—that I'm damn lucky to have her," Mendez noted with a smirk. "Anyway, I'm glad to hear that about you and V'Lar, son. It's good you managed to stop that bastard, Tevik, from seriously harming her."

Tynen simply nodded.

"Jay, the reason I called was to tell you that besides the platoon that's scheduled to join your crew, we also sent you a woman named Athena Palamas. She's a full lieutenant who graduated from the Yale Medical School with a specialty in psychiatry. She's been assigned as a psychiatrist in your medical division."

Tynen narrowed his eyes at the admiral. "Palamas…I know that name from somewhere."

The admiral grunted. "Of course, you studied the first five year mission of the _Enterprise_ under Kirk's command?"

"Yes, sir."

"Do you recall the mission where they ran across the alien who claimed to be the ancient Greek God Apollo?"

"Yes!" Tynen exclaimed. "He impregnated one of Kirk's officers!"

"Yes, well, Carolyn Palamas' little girl is all grown up now. Our 'demi-goddess' has a high psi-rating, even higher than the most adept Deltans. She's telepathic and empathic but we don't know if she possesses any other abilities. We'd like you to mentor her and to monitor her progress."

Tynen smirked. "You want to make certain she doesn't follow too closely in daddy's footsteps."

Mendez nodded. "You understand perfectly, captain. If she becomes dangerous, I'm counting on you or V'Lar to deal with her. I think our chances are best, though, if the task falls to you."

"Received and understood, Admiral."

"Good. Oh, Jay, the final person joining your crew is a reporter for the Altair Information Syndicate."

Tynen got a cold feeling in the pit of his stomach at that bit of news. "A reporter, sir?"

"Yes. Commander Holloway at the Sentient Relations and Communications Division came up with the idea of embedding a reporter on one of the ships we're sending to the Alliance Earth quadrant. Holloway thinks having the reporter file articles for the Federation, the Klingons, and the races in Alliance Earth's area of operation will go a long way in helping us raise the credits we need to fund the war effort against the Minbari and in winning the hearts and minds of the races on the other side of the galaxy."

_Oh well_, he mused inwardly, _at least the admiral gave me the name of the bastard in SRCD, so I know who to kill. _"What's the name of this…reporter?"

"It's Bob Hastings."

"H-hastings, sir?" Tynen sputtered. "Wasn't he the joker who'd written the article that forced Admiral Duane into early retirement?"

"Yes…that's him," Mendez noted with a growl. "He's been warned, though, not to ambush any of our people on this assignment. If he does, dump his ass on Alliance Earth, preferrably on their Antarctica for all I care! However, Holloway assures me that having someone with Hastings' reputation for being an independent operator will go over big with the politicians and the Klingons. We wouldn't get the same leeway if a reporter from Federation News Service had been given the assignment."

"I understand, sir."

"Oh, Jay, he'll probably want to do a piece on your marriage."

Tynen's eyes opened wide at that. "He'll want to do a piece on V'Lar and me?"

"Yes. Be accommodating but if he gets too nosy, tell him to stick it where the sun doesn't shine."

"But, sir…Vulcans highly value their privacy. I'm not sure my wife will agree to something like that."

"Oh…" the admiral grunted. "I forgot about that. Well, just broach the subject with her and ask if she'd be willing to do it as a personal favor to me. If she does, I promise to make it worth her while."

Tynen nodded and sighed heavily. "Aye, sir."

"That's the spirit, Jay!" the admiral teased. "I'll call you again before you cast off for the rendezvous point. Oh, by the way, good work with the Klingons. It seems you made quite an impression on General Kang and his friends."

"Thank you, sir. What exactly did they say?"

"Well, they said, 'Until we'd met Captain Tynen, we'd believed that once Garth, Mendez, Kirk and that she-wolf Hudec met their well-deserved ends, neither the Federation nor Starfleet would possess anyone interesting left to kill. How fortunate it is to find we were mistaken in our beliefs.'"

"Wow…I really feel the love, sir," Tynen offered with a smirk.

"I know I feel appreciated," the flag officer said with a death's head grin.

"Sir, there's still time to refit the _Fighting_ _Maine_. Your _Pyotr Velikiy_-class cruiser certainly gave the Klingons a rough time. It could do the same against the Minbari."

The admiral smiled wistfully. "Don't tempt me, son. It's hard for me to sit this one out. You know, Jay, you have the chops to become an admiral but if you're smart you'll take my advice. Don't ever let them take you out of the captain's chair. That's where the real action is. That's where you can make a difference. That's where you won't find the time to grow so…damn…old."

"Aye, aye, sir!" he barked to the admiral like a wet-behind-the-ears midshipman.

Mendez chuckled at him. "Well, I have a meeting I've got to run to. Give my regards to the missus, all right?"

"You've got it, sir. And…thank you…for everything."

"Don't mention it, Jay. Mendez out."

As the screen went blank, Tynen reflected upon all of what the admiral had said. Then he thought about how captains like Mendez, Kirk, Kang, and Kor, men who'd pushed the boundaries of exploration, still preferred to go out in a blaze of glory with phasers and disruptors firing on the deck of a starship. He frowned. He'd heard about how Kirk had lost his son moments before he'd murdered his own ship. Now, James T. Kirk had the opportunity to take another _Enterprise_ into harm's way to defend the Federation.

Like Kirk, Tynen was going to try and beat the devil and all he had to wager with was his ship, his crew, and the love of his life.

He damned the Minbari, but mostly, he damned himself as he turned in his chair to stare out at the stars through his office window as another of Kirk's adventures came to mind. "Perhaps the Metrons were too optimistic about us," he murmured to no one. "A few thousand years might not be long enough."

#


	11. Chapter 11

_Note: I made some substantial changes due to a kind review from a great writer (thanks, AG) regarding Athena Palamas' character and Tynen's address to the MACOs in this chapter, so you may wish to read it again. Thanks for sharing the journey with me! - JC_

Chapter 11 

Just as Tynen exited onto the Bridge from his ready room, an alert sounded on Lt. Mazan's panel. "Captain, we have several ships dropping out of warp near Regulus V. It's the _Billings_ and the _Sato_, sir. They're towing the _Challenger_."

He smiled at his tactical officer. "That's good news, Etana. Hail the _Billings_."

"Aye, sir," she said. Moments later the main view screen displayed a female Andorian officer seated in the captain's chair of the other vessel.

"Captain Tapell, welcome back! What's the status of the _Challenger_?"

"Hello, Captain Tynen," she said, her voice cool and professional. "Other than her warp drive, the _Challenger_ is nominal. The nacelles, however, are completely wrecked. They'll need to be replaced."

Tynen nodded. "Casualties?"

"She's lost twenty-three crewmen, mostly in engineering and an entire phaser crew. The captain is still recovering from his injuries in the _Challenger's_ sickbay."

He grunted at that. "Well, good work, captain. Although I would like to personally relay my compliments to Commander Hansen and Lieutenant Frost for their work in saving their ship, I have to attend a meeting at this time. Go ahead and tow the _Challenger_ into a parking orbit over Regulus III and we'll notify the Corps of Engineers they should begin work on her immediately."

"Aye, sir, _Billings_ out," she said crisply before the connection was terminated.

"Etana," he said after he turned to his tactical officer, "notify the corps. I want them to start work on the _Challenger_ as soon as possible."

"Yes, captain."

"I think we're going to need all the heavy cruisers we can get our hands on before this thing with the Minbari is over. Also, please extend an invitation to General Kang, Lady Mara, Generals Kor and Koloth, Commander Klagh, and Curzon Dax to attend the party that Rex and Shron are having for V'Lar and me at 1930 hours," he said.

"Aye, sir," she answered while he strode toward the turbo lift doors.

#

A minute later, Tynen exited the lift onto deck ten. He entered the door that led into the shuttle bay and saw off to one side of the massive hall thirty or so people with their backs to him seated in four rows. In front of the first row, V'Lar stood addressing the small crowd of what appeared to be MACOs. Although she didn't hesitate in her presentation when she noticed his arrival, he felt her touch his mind briefly and basked in the warmth of the affection she possessed for him.

"…class was named after the USS _Constellation _which was lost with all hands when she was sacrificed to save several Federation worlds from a doomsday weapon created by a long-dead, advanced alien civilization. These starships are classified as deep space explorers, capable of ten year mission durations without the requirement of starbase support. To facilitate their mission, these vessels have been provided with full-scale industrial processing and fabrication facilities."

She paused momentarily to draw a breath then said, "The primary hulls of these vessels are constructed of a special, extra-thick laminate hull and is much larger than the primary hull of a _Constitution_-class starship. These vessels also carry twenty-five percent more cargo due to their long-duration mission profiles."

"This vessel, the USS _Valkyrie_, was the third of her class. She has a number of well-equipped laboratories, a high resolution stellar cartography center, a subspace sensor telescope that can study objects more than 3.5 light years distant, polarized hull plating and an integrated force field and deflector field system for threat situations and FTL applications, and four warp nacelles to reduce stress on the stardrive system and to provide spares in case of a non-repairable system failure."

She paused when a young man raised his hand. "Yes…sergeant?"

"Ma'am, I was wondering, what sort of weapons does she have?"

"This vessel's armaments are as follows: six twin mount RIM 15A phasers, six banks of single mount RSM 20B phasers, four forward arc photon torpedo tubes, and two rear arc photon torpedo tubes."

Tynen smiled to himself at the stunned gasps and startled expressions on most of the MACOs' faces. "Are they freaking kidding me?" he heard someone mutter lowly. "This thing ain't no explorer…it's a freaking battleship!"

"Actually…lieutenant," his wife said, "the armaments of this vessel are primarily for self-defense. However, since this vessel is designed for deep space missions and to interdict incursions into Federation space, Starfleet determined it was prudent to arm the vessel in this manner."

Tynen chuckled under his breath. It seems the MACO lieutenant hadn't counted on how incredibly sensitive V'Lar's beautiful pointed ears were.

"Excuse me, commander," a short man with a well-groomed beard said. He happened to be sitting next to an insanely-gorgeous, blonde woman dressed in a Starfleet uniform. _She's got to be Athena Palamas_, Tynen thought while the man continued to make his point. "After hearing your description of the weapons this ship carries, I can't blame the lieutenant for thinking this ship is a battleship. Even though Starfleet calls this ship a 'star cruiser,' she has more weapons than an _Excelsior-_class starship. Also, I hear that you have three warp-capable armed shuttles and an armed shuttlepod. Now, I don't know about you but it seems to me you've got a lot of weapons for a ship of exploration."

_Uh, oh, _Tynen thought. _Civilian clothes, smart-ass attitude-that has to be Bob Hastings__. Since when,_ he wondered, _did the reporter begin to lean toward the Peace At Any Cost way of thinking? _The captain was going to jump in and field the man's comment but his wife made any response from him superfluous. "Mr. Hastings, perhaps you are unaware of our present circumstances. Please allow me to enlighten you. The United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire are at war with the Minbari Federation. Although this ship is designated by Starfleet as an explorer, she does, as you humans say, have very sharp teeth. Although this ship is not as large as an _Excelsior_-class starship and her crew complement is two thirds of an _Excelsior-_class vessel's size, the _Valkyrie_ is well-armed because it is often the only vessel within several parsecs of a potential hostile incursion along the borders of the Federation."

She then gave the newsman a dispassionate glare like an owl's regard of a hapless mouse. "If you considered the capabilities of this vessel in naval terms, she would likely be designated as a 'fast battleship,' her role somewhat similar to that of twentieth century Earth's United States Navy _Iowa_-class battleship. Like that ancient battleship, the _Valkyrie_ is capable of engaging hostile capital ships in sustained combat on equal terms. She is one of the fleet's fastest starships capable of high warp velocities without compromising combat ability or protection. Therefore, Mr. Hastings, with the addition of our new platoon and the armed shuttles, I would hypothesize that you would consider it fortuitous that Starfleet chose to embed you on the 'baddest' ship in the fleet."

Tynen grinned wickedly at the suddenly demure reporter. After watching her epic smack-down of the reporter, his belief that taking his sexy Vulcan to the ship's movie night would pay off handsomely one day, had been vindicated!

#

After V'Lar had completed her presentation, Major Vanderweg introduced Tynen to the audience. As the soldiers prepared to snap to attention, the captain waved them down. "As you were…as you were," he said. When they'd all settled down, he began. "Welcome aboard the USS _Valkyrie_, ladies and gentlemen. We call her the _Val_ for short. For the foreseeable future, she will be a home to you and me. She's a relatively new ship but she's got a lot of spirit. I expect she'll see us through some challenging times in Alliance Earth space. I suspect she'll see us through some wonderful times as well," he said as he shot a tender glance at his first officer who nodded to him. "Her dedication plaque reads, 'No cause is lost as long as there is someone who will fight for it.' Well, I can think of no better _raison d'être_ than that. Ladies and gentlemen, it is our duty to seek justice on behalf of those who were brutally murdered here at the Regulus colonies. These innocents lost their lives simply because the majority of them were human. The Minbari apparently believe that every human should be exterminated, that we should go quietly into the night."

He paused and stared at each and every person in the audience. "Clearly," he drawled, "they don't know what the Romulans, the Kzinti, and the Klingons have learned the hard way." Then he smiled slyly at the MACOs. "Now I know you ground pounders usually speak in 'plainer' terms than most spacers, except for, of course, our master chiefs." All of the soldiers laughed heartily at that. "And since my first officer mentioned the famous _Iowa_-class battleship of the twentieth century earlier during your orientation, let me put it into terms that a heroine from a great movie later in that century used when a fictional machine tried to eradicate humanity. If the enemy is foolish enough to attack Alliance Earth with the number of torpedoes we have on hand, all I have to say is that any Minbari not wearing two million sunblock is gonna have a real bad day!"

The soldiers leaped to their feet and cheered as his eyes shined with grim determination. Then, after their roar died down, he said, "Soon, we'll leave for Alliance Earth and teach the Minbari a lesson they'll never forget." Then he glared at the MACOs and snapped, "Now, let's get to work!"

Major Vanderweg then called the platoon to attention and the captain snapped, "Dismissed!"

#

After receiving handshakes from most of the MACOs and extending invitations to Lieutenant Palamas and Mr. Hastings for the party Rex and Shron were throwing for V'Lar and him, the captain and his first officer exited the shuttle bay into the corridor. As they strolled toward the turbo lift, V'Lar asked, "Terminator 2, Judgment Day?" She sighed with mock resignation. "Really, Jason, you are incorrigible."

He smirked. "I steal from the best, aisha. And it appealed to the MACOs. They like that 'bad ass' kind of talk. Besides, you have to agree that Linda Hamilton's line was pretty awesome."

She nodded. "Although I believe her character was excessively violent, I admired her efforts to protect her son from harm."

He smiled gently at her. "I think you'd be just as protective of our child, beloved."

"Yes," she agreed. "Like her, I am one tough witch."

He shot a surprised look at her in response.

"Was my use of human idiom incorrect?"

"No," he said, stifling a chuckle. "You were right on the money, baby."

Her right eyebrow arched highly. "Why, thank you, 'cuddle monkey.'"

Now, it was his turn for his brow to arch toward the ceiling. "All right, V'Lar. I'll make you a deal. If I stop calling you 'baby,' will you agree never again to use that so-called term of endearment?"

She said nothing as she stepped into the lift ahead of him.

"V'Lar? V'Lar!"

His wife shot a condescendingly Vulcan look his way. "I am still pondering your offer, Jason," she said as the lift doors closed shut.

#

The party was in full swing as Tynen took another sip of his third flute of champagne. He had intended to return to the side of his bride when he suddenly noticed across the Senior Officer's Lounge his old rival/sometime friend Klagh appeared to be paying an inordinate amount of attention to Etana Mazan. After examining his drink to make certain it wasn't doctored and causing him to hallucinate, Tynen started toward the Klingon and his tactical officer, hoping to put a stop to this madness before Klagh got carried away and did something stupid enough to make Tynen kill him. That's when Athena Palamas cut him off at the pass.

"Captain," the preternaturally lovely demi-goddess breathed. "Thank you for inviting me to your wedding reception!"

The captain smiled blankly at Lt. Palamas while he continued to glare surreptitiously at the Klagh who raised a mocking toast to Tynen. "Don't mention it, Lieutenant," he growled, still fuming at his so-called 'friend's' antics. When he finally calmed down enough to focus on the young woman standing in front of him, Tynen then truly noticed her and couldn't help but give her a real smile. She had the most gorgeous blonde hair he'd ever seen in his life, an incredible figure plainly evident even under her tunic, and azure eyes the color of the Regulus system's blue star. Yet, even as exquisite as she was, in his eyes, she still did not equal the dark, exotic beauty who was She, his beloved wife. "Since this is a party, may I call you Athena?"

Her smile was open and friendly. "I would like that, captain."

"It's all right to call me Jay when we're off duty."

Her eyes widened at that. "I-I'm not certain I'm ready for that, sir. Can I refer to you by your rank for now?"

"Of course, Athena," he said. "May I get you a drink?"

"Thank you, sir! I'll have some champagne."

He guided the young lieutenant to the bar where one of the stewards poured two flutes of the bubbly drink for them. Tynen then handed one of the goblets to her while he kept the other. "Well, if you're going to call me 'captain' all night, perhaps I should refer to you as 'doctor,'" he teased.

She laughed and it sounded like music to his ears. "Well, my specialty is psychiatry. However, I do possess telepathic and empathic abilities that you may want to use when needed, sir. Of course, I would only use my telepathy with a knowing and willing subject, captain."

"I understand, Athena," he murmured as he noticed his wife's graceful approach.

When she reached his side, she nodded to Athena. "Lieutenant," she said.

"Hello, Commander V'Lar!"

"Are you enjoying yourself?"

"Oh, yes, commander! I'm having the time of my life! Why, I've had the chance to meet three legendary Klingons! And not only have I had the opportunity to talk to the first joined Trill I've ever met, I've actually been drawn into a discussion with three of them!" Tynen smiled at that, knowing it was a safe bet that Dax, Rex, and Vox would stand out at any party. Then Athena continued her long answer to V'Lar's query. "Yet even with all of this, nothing tops the fact that I'm serving on the only ship in the fleet where a human is married to a Vulcan!"

V'Lar cocked an eyebrow at the younger woman. "An accurate and highly emotional summation of your present circumstances," she observed as she raised two fingers to her husband.

Tynen smiled at her and reciprocated by pressing his two fingers against hers.

"That's quite a touching scene, captain."

Tynen turned toward the smooth male voice and found Bob Hastings heading toward them. "Oh, Mr. Hastings, I hope no pun was intended by your remark," Jason noted with a smirk. "Are you having a good time?"

The shorter man smiled then nodded politely to both his wife and Athena. "Why, yes, I am, captain. I just finished having a chat with General Kor. He's quite fascinating. Do you know that he agreed to sit down with me for an interview?"

"Is that so? That's quite a coup, Mr. Hastings. I look forward to reading that interview."

"Well, I won't be able to get to his interview until I've the opportunity to interview you and your wife, sir."

"Excuse me, Mr. Hastings," V'Lar said, "did you say that you desire to conduct an interview with Captain Tynen and me?"

He nodded. "Yes, Commander V'Lar. I thought Starfleet had told you about it."

Inwardly, Tynen winced. _Oh crap!_ he fumed silently. _'I forgot to tell you Mendez had told me that this guy wanted to interview us, aisha,' _he transmitted to her via their bond. _'I'm sorry that it had slipped my mind.'_

Her expression gave nothing away as she regarded the reporter. "I was not informed about your request by Starfleet. May I ask what you propose to cover with me in your interview?"

"Well," the man said, "I wanted to ask you both why you chose to become involved with a person from a different species and how you came to be married. I also want to know how you feel about working with your spouse on a ship that is heading into a war zone."

She said nothing in response and narrowed her eyes at Hastings. Tynen, though, felt her annoyance and that concerned him greatly. "Mr. Hastings, as my wife told you, she had not been contacted by Starfleet regarding the interview. I think it's reasonable, since this is the first she's heard about it, to give her the opportunity to consider your request."

Apparently, the man was intelligent enough to know when not to push. "Of course, captain. Take as much time as you need, commander."

She bowed slightly to the reporter. "Thank you, Mr. Hastings. I appreciate your consideration in this matter." Then she turned to her husband and said, "I have suddenly grown fatigued, my husband. Would you escort me to our quarters?" she asked while her mind flashed him a vision of the two of them, naked and being extremely naughty in their shower.

Desperately struggling to keep the smile off his face, he answered, "I would be amenable to escorting you to our quarters, my wife." Then he regarded both Athena and the newsman. "Doctor Palamas, Mr. Hastings, please excuse us. I hope you both will enjoy the rest of the evening."

His new officer smiled innocently, yet he believed he noticed the conspiratorial gleam in her eye. "Of course, captain, commander. Have a pleasant evening."

Hastings, however, was clueless. "Good night, captain. Good evening, commander."

"Good night, lieutenant…Mr. Hastings," V'Lar said. Then the captain and his first officer beat a surreptitiously hasty, yet dignified, retreat back to their quarters.

#


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

The following morning, V'Lar, while dressed in her silk pajamas, knelt on top of her mat to meditate as her husband showered and shaved in their bathroom. After he'd completed his grooming, he exited the lavatory and crossed over to his closet, wearing nothing.

At that moment, she apparently decided her meditation was over. She opened her eyes and glanced to her side to find him bent over his lower dresser drawer reaching for his underwear. '_Es'tuhl Pla'kruslar tishau , adun,' _she breathed via their bond.

When he heard her gasp, he shot her a look and spied the gleam in her eye. Then a bewildered smile dawned on his face. "What does that mean, aisha?"

The corner of her lip quirked slightly upward. "The sight of your nude buttocks is pleasing to me."

He grinned at her. "So…you were leering?"

Her face displayed the look he'd describe as 'mild bemusement.' "It seems so."

That won her a bigger grin as he advanced toward her. Once there, he drew her gently to her feet and guided her to their bed, where they both seated themselves.

He held both of her hands in his and asked, "V'Lar, may I ask you a question?"

"You may ask me anything, beloved."

He exhaled heavily. "Okay. Not that I'm complaining mind you, because you're my dream come true," he said then paused.

He could've sworn that her eyes smiled at him. "I am…gratified that I please you, adun."

He smiled at her then continued. "However, you do seem very demonstrative with your affections for me. Is that normal for Vulcans in a bonded relationship or are you mimicking human responses to please me?"

She arched an eyebrow at him.

"Please humor me, aisha. I know that a solid marriage is built on compromise and I don't want you to feel you had to cater to my whims."

"I have never felt that way, my husband. Now to answer your question—although I do not have personal experience with Vulcan males, my people are quite affectionate in private with our mates even though they are not demonstrative in the presence of others. Indeed, our affections for our mate become even more…intense when the couple is bonded as a result of the_ Kun-ut Kali Fi_."

"V'Lar, are you certain that is applicable to us? Tevik's mating cycle was artificially induced."

"It matters not, my husband, what commenced the mating cycle. Tevik's blood fever triggered the release of my pheromones, causing his physiology to react to me and, because of the bond you and I share, a proprietary response to occur in you. Thus, when you defended my honor and staked your claim to me, the biochemical connection between us enhanced our psychic bond. Now our bond overshadows all. Names, families, public service, everything is superseded. We are now one, forever together, never parted."

He smiled. "You're the love of my life, V'Lar."

She drew him to her and kissed him gently. After their lips parted, she whispered, "And I am honored by the tenor of your love for me, my husband. Unlike you, it is my understanding that Vulcan males are always dominant in the ways of mating. At times, particularly during the _plak tow_, mating can be brutal, ferocious, savage - fractures, contusions and bloodshed a common occurrence. With you, though, our mating is both tender and passionate. It is both physically and emotionally satisfying. No matter how gentle or untamed we are, mating with you is ecstasy."

Her beautiful words were so moving he wanted to kiss her again. However, she frowned and said, "There is one thing more I must disclose to you, adun."

"And that would be?"

"During my time as a cadet at the Academy, my roommate was Mares, a former Orion Slave Girl who had escaped from one of the syndicates and been sponsored into the Academy by a Starfleet officer. Apparently, Vulcans and our bondmates are immune to an Orion woman's pheromones and I was the only Vulcan female available to share a room with her. Although her sexual appetite was quite…voracious, she was an exemplary cadet and a treasured colleague. On one occasion, she and I were trapped in a defective turbo lift for quite some time. Mares, unfortunately, suffered acute claustrophobia and began to panic. I assisted her in maintaining her composure by performing a mind meld on her until repairs had been affected. However, due to the length of that meld, I may have assimilated some of Mares' erotic proficiency." She gave him a somber look. "I hope that this news does not distress you, my beloved."

He blinked twice and said nothing. Shielding his mind, he screamed inwardly, _Is she freaking kidding me? Not only does she tap her inner ancient-Vulcan-sex-goddess and wear my ass out every night, she has the skills of an Orion Slave Girl to boot? _At that moment, a humble Tynen just _knew_ beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was the luckiest SOB in the entire universe!

He dropped his mental shields and managed to smile serenely. "Nothing you could ever tell me about yourself, aisha, would trouble me. I cherish thee, V'Lar."

Although she couldn't smile, he felt her sense of relief and the warmth of her affection for him through their bond. "Thank you for both cherishing me as well as your understanding, adun."

"Don't mention it, aduna," he said and hugged her closely so she wouldn't see the look of unmitigated glee upon his face.

#

Late in the day, Tynen and V'Lar were on the Bridge when Etana announced, "Captain, it's Admiral Mendez. He'd like a word with you on a secure channel."

"Thank you, lieutenant," he said. "I'll take it in my ready room."

He rose from his chair, shot a quick glance at his wife, and strode into his office. After the door swished closed behind him, he approached his desk, sat down in his chair and switched on his monitor. Moments later, it winked on and he saw Mendez seated behind his desk. "Good afternoon, admiral," Tynen said.

"Afternoon, Jay."

"How can I help you, sir?"

"Jay," the man said as he pressed a button, causing the view to expand and reveal an elder African American Starfleet flag officer. "You know Admiral Cartwright, of course."

Tynen's eyes grew ice cold in that instant.

"Tynen...long time no see," the other flag officer drawled.

"Hello, Cartwright," Tynen…no, he was Paladin now, growled.

"Jay," Mendez snapped, seemingly uncomfortable with both the change in the _Valkyrie_ captain's demeanor and Cartwright's presence in his office. "The admiral here has some questions he'd like to ask you. Apparently, it concerns one of your former associates before you came under my command."

"Tynen, let's talk about Jack Gretsky. I know you guys go way back. Why, I remember running into you two when you were both sent to T'Vam. By the way, how did you ever get off that planet?"

Paladin narrowed his eyes at the elder man. "You mean how did we manage to escape from that hell hole after you left us there to die?"

Cartwright had the decency at least to look chagrined. "Our task force scanned the planet for you but we couldn't pick up your life signs. We'd thought you both hadn't made it."

"Well, I'm sorry to have disappointed you."

"You know, I'm surprised that neither of you turned violent or murderous after your exposure to the hallucinogenic pollen there. I heard it affected half of the people exposed to it."

Paladin shrugged. "Considering what we did for the Federation, would it have made a difference if we'd been exposed?"

Cartwright had a worried look on his face at that but pressed on. "Look, I know you don't like me but I don't care about that. I don't care about the hallucinogenic drugs and I don't care about your past in the Section."

"You must care about something," Paladin observed. "You look nervous."

"Have you seen Gretsky lately?"

"No."

"Jack went over to the Klingons a few months ago."

If looks could kill, Paladin imagined the present look on his face would have disintegrated the African American admiral where he stood. "I don't believe that."

"You should. We believe he killed a man who'd been a thorn in the side of the Klingons for years."

"Who did he supposedly kill?"

Cartwright exhaled noisily. "Colonel Patrick West. West was as an expert on the Klingon Empire. He'd learned at the feet of Admiral Solow and his brilliance was recognized by former President Wescott around the time of the Four Day War with the Klingons. And though we're now allied with those Klingon scum to deal with the Minbari problem, I'm certain they wouldn't mind settling old scores if their allies are too busy elsewhere to keep their minds on the store."

"Perhaps," Paladin said simply. Although the impression on his face was carefully schooled to be as neutral as possible, inwardly he was disgusted by Cartwright's bigotry. Putting aside his discomfort, the former operative said, "But I'm still lost here. Why would Jack go after West? The colonel certainly wasn't one of Jack's enemies."

"That's true. However, the Klingons may have put him up to assassinating West so Gretsky could prove his loyalty to them. Soon, he may leave a trail of dead bodies and settle some of his own scores before he goes into deep cover."

"Good," he stated curtly. Although Gretsky was deadly as hell, he also tended to be very discriminate about his targets and avoided inflicting collateral damage. "If the targets consist of some of the bastards we've dealt with over the years then they probably deserve his undivided attention."

"Well, I suppose that depends on your definition of 'good,' Tynen, because we think he might be on his way to Regulus. In fact, he may already be there even as we speak. Perhaps you two can have a reunion of sorts," Cartwright drawled. "Won't that be fun?"

A puzzled look clouded Admiral Mendez's face. "What in heaven's name could be in the Regulus system that he'd want?"

"Me," Paladin whispered.

"Look," Cartwright said, "we don't want to hurt him. All we really want is to have him come in from the cold and spill all the information the Klingons have passed to him about their operations in our space."

The _Valkyrie's_ captain shot an annoyed look at Cartwright then. "If he comes to Regulus because of me, he's not coming for a chat over tea and biscuits."

"Of course," the elder man agreed. "I just want to be certain you can do what needs to be done."

He ignored Cartwright's response and asked, "Do you have a recent image of him you can transmit to me?"

Cartwright nodded. "I'll send it to you shortly after we've terminated this call."

"Thanks," Paladin said.

"He's on the run, Tynen. He's desperate and a traitor."

"Not to me, he isn't," the former Section operative noted.

"If you help him, starship captain or no, we'll treat you like any Federation security risk."

Mendez narrowed his eyes at Cartwright then and snapped, "Admiral, I don't like it when someone threatens my captains. Captain Tynen has always been an exemplary officer during his time in Operations and I see no reason for you to attempt to intimidate him."

A stunned look crossed Cartwright's face momentarily. Then he laughed boisterously. "Do you truly believe I could intimidate Tynen? Jose, let me tell you something. There are about eight people in Section 31 who can act with complete autonomy unless they receive a direct verbal order from their mysterious director. They can sanction any target they so chose if they believe doing so is good for the Federation. Jose, we've just finished having a discussion about one of them. And another, well…let's just say he was kind enough to take our call." Then he turned to regard the captain. "Tell me, though, Tynen. I'm astounded you've managed to become 'regular navy' so to speak. I thought no one could ever truly leave Section 31."

"You thought wrong."

The admiral smirked at him. "I suppose so."

"Well, gentlemen, if that's all, I'll sign off now. Jay, be careful out there. Good men like you are hard to come by."

The part of him that was Paladin faded away to reveal the aspect of him that saw Mendez as more than his commanding officer; rather, he saw him as his friend. "Thank you, sir. I'll be in touch."

The Chief of Operations nodded. "Mendez out," he snapped and the screen went dark.

Tynen reflected upon all of what Cartwright had said and knowing the little he did know, nothing about the admiral's story made sense. If his friend was working for the Klingons, why would he care about the kind of impact Tevik's death would have on the Vulcans? And why would Jack be concerned about Starfleet's reputation during the entire affair if he'd gone over to play for the other team?

Tynen sighed wistfully as he swiveled his chair to stare out at the stars through his office window and wondered whether he was strong enough to do what needed to be done when the time came.

#

_After Cartwright's image of Jack Gretsky had arrived, I had Etana call a meeting in the conference room with V'Lar, Major Vanderweg, herself, and me in attendance…_

#

Tynen had Etana transmit Jack's image to the table top view screen. "This man's name is Jack Gretsky. He works in the intelligence community. He has the highest clearances and he almost always works alone."

"Captain," V'Lar asked, "did this person have something to do with Captain Tevik's situation?"

His steely gaze met her puzzled one. "He had everything to do with it," he rasped. He forced his eyes away from his wife and locked onto the gazes of both Etana and Hans. "This man may attempt to board this ship before we leave to rendezvous with the expeditionary fleet. If he chooses to do so, you won't be able to stop him. This man is a virtuoso of death. He sees everything…everything," the captain's voice trailed off into a whisper.

"Sir, do you know this man?" Etana murmured.

He blinked twice and confessed, "Yeah, I know him."

"Is…is he like you, skipper?" Hans asked.

He glared at the major for a moment before he nodded sullenly. "Yes."

He looked away from his team members for several beats before he glanced at each one. "He'll be coming for me," he said and sensed the distress of his mate through their bond.

Although he empathized with V'Lar's deep-seated concern for his safety, he pressed on. "I'll find out if he's been sanctioned. I want you all to know that I'll be the only person to deal with him. Make no mistake, any of you. Jack Gretsky is dangerous. I want you to tell your people if they see him, do not, under any circumstances, try to apprehend him. Neither you nor your people are to approach him in any way. That's an order."

"But captain—"

He cut Etana off. "I mean it, lieutenant. Do not challenge him in any manner. Do you understand?"

Her eyes blinked rapidly as her mind apparently tried to come up with the appropriate response to an order she vehemently opposed. Finally, her sense of discipline forced her to acquiesce. "Yes, sir," she whispered.

He gave her a smile. "Thank you, Etana. You know, you're a fine officer and I'd hate to have anything happen to you on my account. Good tactical officers and security chiefs are hard to come by, you know."

She smiled thinly at him as he asked "Any questions?" and glanced around the table.

After several moments of silence, he announced, "All right, this meeting is adjourned."

As Etana and Hans rose from their chairs to leave, his wife's beautiful eyes locked onto his. He smiled gently at her and said, "I know, my wife, I know. Shall we discuss it further at dinner tonight?"

She nodded. "Your suggestion is acceptable, my husband."

As they exited the conference room, he detected her inner struggle as she forced herself to avoid staring at her mate who walked silently by her side.

#


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Later that evening, V'Lar shared her concerns with Tynen over dinner. Although he told her about his belief that Gretsky didn't appear to be planning to kill him, she was still apprehensive.

After they had finished their meal, they returned to their quarters. They changed out of their uniforms, entered their bathroom and stepped into their shower. Warm water streamed onto their bodies as the lovers washed each other and themselves while they kissed intermittently. Falling into the lull of her hands drifting over his gluts, neck, back, ears, stomach and chest, he leaned his hands against the wall to allow her complete access to his body. Then, when she finished bathing him, he washed her hair, gently massaging her scalp with his fingertips as he pampered her. Finally, after he rinsed her hair, he shared a soul kiss with her before they'd left the shower.

They dried each other's bodies with large, fluffy bath sheets. Then she used a blow dryer to style her long tresses. When her hair was dry, they cloaked themselves in their robes and settled in on their bed to watch a movie. They cuddled, her seated in front of him with her back pressed against his chest. Although the movie was entertaining, her physical proximity made it somehow difficult for him to concentrate on it. Closing his eyes, he breathed deeply, drawing in her scent. He felt his ardor for her stir and she must've been attuned to him, because her desire was stimulated as well.

He gently planted kisses on her neck while his hands caressed her breasts through the smooth material of her robe. A purr undulated from her throat and he murmured, "I want you."

Shivering with anticipation, she nodded and whispered, "I desire thee as well."

He flicked the tip of his tongue against the point of her ear. "Are you finished watching the movie, love?"

A tiny pant puffed past her lips as his fingers brushed against the silk that restrained her nipples.

"Yes," she said.

He kissed her temple, tapped his remote and ended the program. Then she turned to face him and they divested each other of their robes just before he kissed her deeply. She arched into his touch while her hands ran up and down the length of his torso. Moments later, he kissed and sucked his way down V'Lar's neck, eliciting tiny moans of encouragement from her.

"Jason..."

"Mmmm…" he droned before he stole another greedy kiss from his wife.

Soon, every move was matched between the two lovers as they writhed against each other in the middle of their bed, lips locked, hands grasping, demanding. Their kisses were furious, as if trying to address in a matter of seconds all that the prior year had built up between them.

He broke away from their heated kisses, biting gently down on his Vulcan wife's plump lower lip before he descended down her chin to the gentle slope of her neck. V'Lar rolled her head back, eyes half shut as her human lover suckled her sensitive flesh into his mouth, running his tongue over it. Soon, her hands abandoned their hold on his broad shoulders, traveling instead down his back until they cupped his bottom and squeezed, crushing their hips together.

"V'Lar," he mumbled while he continued to press his lips against her neck, "I love how you touch me..." he breathed. Then he licked and nibbled near the base of her neck before he dragged his lips up the side to her ear where he flicked her lobe gently, teasingly, before scraping his teeth over it, tugging it into his mouth.

"Yes," his wife hissed, her left hand shooting up to draw his head even nearer.

She tugged on his hair when his tongue slid along the curve of her ear, causing tiny tremors to rack her body. Then she turned her head and nipped her husband's neck, grasping chocolate brown skin between her teeth playfully before sucking on it with a feral growl. In response, he released his hold on her ear as his arousal began its arduous climb toward their summit.

However, rather than rushing toward their apex, he slowly, methodically worshiped her body with his mouth. His fingers toyed with hers and he caressed her skin as a Vulcan would, his digits meandering over her entire body. She obviously considered his movements to be sultry because she groaned wantonly and bit her lip as he continued to caress her.

Finally, their bodies joined as one. As her legs curled against his sides, his right hand gripped her bottom and pressed her body tightly against his.

"Yes, adun," she murmured.

Like the rolling waves of a bay tumbling tranquilly onto the shore, husband and wife languidly rocked against the other. Caught up in their race to ecstasy, their cries sounded, revealing that both of the lovers had tossed aside any pretense to enlightenment, leaving only their primal urges for each other.

Then long after their foray had begun, V'Lar's breath caught in her throat. Her eyes flew open and her husband witnessed the depths of her love, commitment, and passion for him. At that moment, he was completely lost. He groaned and his body began to quake just as her arms held him tightly while she plummeted over the edge of her precipice.

"Let go, aisha, now!" she commanded and he exploded, his rapture evidenced by his unrestrained cry into the stillness of their quarters.

There was a charged hush that fell over the room as he struggled to catch his breath and reflected on the perfection of their lovemaking. Then the silence was abruptly shattered by his wife. "On this occasion, my beloved, I am certain it was you who yelled," she observed with a twinkle in her eye.

He smiled softly as he brushed a lock of moist hair from her face. "Are you suggesting I was loud?" he asked.

"Yes."

He chuckled and asked, "Do you think our neighbors will file a protest with the captain?"

Although her eyes sparkled with her shared bemusement at his little joke, instead of continuing to engage in witty repartee, she awarded him with a sweet kiss to his lips.

Moments later, he rubbed her nose with his and whispered, "V'Lar…that was-"

"Sublime?"

He gently stroked the side of her face with his fingertips. "You always know the perfect thing to say. I love you, my darling wife."

She stared deeply into his eyes and whispered, "I cherish thee, my beloved husband."

Soon after, he spooned against her and she snuggled into his body, both of them satiated down to the core of their very souls.

_#_

The next morning, after their final Incident Command meeting, Tynen and V'Lar were seated in their respective chairs on the Bridge when the captain's yeoman exited the turbolift. "Sir," Yeoman Barrett said in her disarmingly coquettish voice, "Here are the fuel requisition reports for your review and approval."

"Thank you, Rachel," he said. "I'll take them to my ready room. Why don't you come back for them in an hour or so?"

The tall and lithe young blonde woman smiled. "Of course, captain." Then she turned smartly and left the Bridge the way she'd come.

Rising from his chair, he shot a tender glance at his wife, felt her affection for him through their bond, and strode into his office. After the door swished closed behind him, he approached his desk with the PADDs in hand and started to sit down in his chair when he heard a voice from the past behind him.

"Hello, Jay."

Somehow, Tynen managed to succeed in concealing his surprise. He carefully placed the PADDs on his desk and turned to find Jack Gretsky seated on his couch. "It's been a long time, Jack."

The other man smiled and nodded. "Yeah, seven years or so. Are you the same man I used to know, Jay?"

Tynen narrowed his eyes at the Section 31 operative. "People change."

"Not you, Jay."

The two men stared at one another for several heart beats.

Then they broke down in fits of laughter.

After Tynen had managed to stop laughing long enough to pick himself off of the deck, he stumbled over to join his chuckling friend on the couch.

"Oh, Jay…" Jack snorted. "I can't believe you remembered all of those lines from that ancient vid!"

The captain shrugged. "Well, it really wasn't that difficult considering how many times you made me watch it."

The other man smirked at him. "Hey, can you blame me? I mean, running across a twentieth century television show with a character that shared the same name as mine and he was a skilled assassin for an intelligence agency to boot? You've got to admit, that is pretty cool!"

"All right, you do have a point there," Tynen agreed. "In fact, I used a few lines from the episode to keep my security people from shooting you on sight."

"Really? What did you tell them?"

"Let's see," Tynen said, pretending to be deep in thought. "I told them you'd be coming for me, that you were dangerous, and not to challenge you. I also told them you could see everything…everything," he recited with a smirk.

"I can't believe you told them that!"

"Why not? It serves you right for scaring that poor woman, Hunter, to death the way you did by telling her all that crap about me!"

Jack narrowed his eyes at his friend. "I'd told her that because I knew when you'd found out about what we'd done to Tevik, you'd be furious. I didn't want anything to happen to her and I wasn't going to be there to keep you from overreacting, so I had to make certain she'd appear to be so vulnerable, you wouldn't harm her."

Tynen nodded at that. "Well, it worked for her. For you, though, I wouldn't bet on it. Tevik beat my wife badly. He nearly raped her, Jack."

"I know, I know," Gretsky muttered. "I'm really sorry about that, Jay and I want to make it up to you."

"How could you possibly succeed at that, Jack?"

"Why, I intend on telling you everything."

"Everything?"

"Yes, well, everything I know…about why we had to remove Tevik in the manner we did, about his connection to a conspiracy that threatened to plunge the Federation into a war with the Klingons, why such a war would be bad for the Federation, why Cartwright is after me and how I used all of this to help give the man I consider to be as close to me as a brother the relationship of a lifetime."

Tynen's eyebrow shot up in a close approximation to a reaction more associated with his wife. "Okay, Jack, you certainly know how to set the stage. Let's hear it."

"All right, buddy," Gretsky said. "Well, it all started with the Praxis explosion. You see, we were the true cause of that disaster."

"What?" Tynen snapped. "Are you saying the Section somehow destroyed that moon!"

His friend shook his head. "No, no, nothing so dramatic, Jay. What I'm saying is that the Praxis incident represented the failure of Federation foreign policy. The Klingons were driven to economic ruin by our Cold War with them. Think about it…we opposed Klingon expansionism at every turn, denied them the use of external resources, and engaged in a massive campaign of military build-ups and propaganda designed to force the Klingons into military expenditures beyond their economic means. For instance, all of those _Predators_ and _Avengers _we built thirty-five years ago_?"_

"Yes…" the captain said.

"They were specifically designed to interdict their trade routes and challenge the smaller Klingon cruisers of their day. They did their job well, too well. The Klingons were so incensed by our efforts they started the Four Day War. If it weren't for the Organians shutting down both sides, the Klingon Empire would most likely have been destroyed by the Federation, leaving us as the only government to check the Romulans' expansion. However, their paranoia and their inability to sustain the arms race drove them to recklessly disregard prudent safety measures in the Praxis mines, thus leading to the explosion which damaged their homeworld environment and threatens to hasten their inevitable economic collapse."

Tynen stared at his friend for a moment before he nodded. "Okay…that does make a lot of sense."

Gretsky smirked at him. "Unfortunately, we're getting to the part where it gets tricky. Chancellor Gorkon decided to seek out help from the Federation to restore his people's economy in the face of the Praxis disaster; however, he was caught between elements of his powerful military and a reviving religious fundamentalist movement within Klingon society due to the efforts of the Section."

Tynen nodded. "I know all about this part, Jack. One of our Cold War efforts to destabilize the Klingon Empire included arming and training certain religious fundamentalist groups. However, we dropped our support for them."

"Do you know why, Jay?"

"Yeah…they wanted any new government they formed to make Kahless the center of a _state-sponsored_ religion that espoused only so-called 'pure' members of their race descended from Kahless should be citizens of the Empire."

"Right! Now, you and I know the Klingon Empire _had_ been making rapid progress in many areas; interbreeding and exposure to foreign cultures, including ours, had transformed their society into a more sophisticated, secular one. However, it was probably going to all go to hell in a hand-basket either due to the military junta or the religious nuts. At the moment, though, my money was on the junta."

"How would the junta take down their Empire?"

"They'd start a destructive and pointless war with us, with the help of several members of Starfleet, as well as agents of the Romulan Star Empire."

Tynen's eyes opened wide when he heard that. "Is this the conspiracy you'd mentioned before?"

"Yep. Cartwright's one of the ringleaders of this conspiracy, along with General Chang of the Klingons. Cartwright wanted to sabotage the peace process by having conspirators aboard Kirk's _Enterprise_ kill Chancellor Gorkon several months ago and frame Kirk with the man's murder. However, before they could pull off their little scheme, the Minbari, bless their bony-ridged heads, entered the Beta Quadrant like a bull in a china shop and singlehandedly gave us the opportunity to make amends for all the crap we pulled on the Klingons during the Cold War!"

"How did you find out about the conspiracy, Jack?"

"We'd had Tevik under surveillance for quite some time as Rebecca had told you. He inadvertently led us to Colonel West. West had contacted him to tell Tevik to maintain his cover and do nothing to the Klingons."

"Wait a minute! According to Captain Hunter, Tevik was told to take out Kang's battle cruiser!"

His friend nodded. "He was, Jay. However, West wasn't the one who told him to do it."

"Who did then?"

"It was Ambassador Nanclus of the Romulan Star Empire. You see, he's really the only leading conspirator at the moment who wants to disrupt the budding relationship between the Klingons and us. He hoped that the others would think that Tevik had gone rogue, although I don't think men as paranoid as Cartwright or Chang would have believed that for a second."

"So…you obtained all of this information from West?"

"Yes."

"Ilya got it for you, didn't she?"

His friend's eyes blinked rapidly. "Jay…"

"Did she kill him?"

"Jay…please…"

"Stand up, Jack."

The other man stared at the captain for a moment before he stood up. Tynen then got up onto his feet, took a step toward Gretsky, and fired a hard left punch to his friend's gut, followed by a right cross to the man's jaw, sending the operative to the deck.

Jack glanced up at the captain from the floor as he rubbed his jaw. "Are we even now, Jay?"

"We're the killers, Jack!" Tynen snapped. "Not Ilya! Not any of the Deltans!"

"Jay…you know I would have done it…but to get that last name, she pressed a little too hard and…well, you know."

The captain closed his eyes for a brief moment before he reached down and pulled his friend back onto his feet. "Sit down. I'll get you an ice pack."

"Jay…you didn't hit me that hard…"

"I know. I'm getting you one anyway."

Just as he reached the small refrigerator behind his desk, his comm panel beeped. He punched the button and announced, "Tynen here."

"V'Lar here, captain. Are you all right, sir?"

_Crap!_ he thought. _She must have sensed my anger through our bond._ "Yes, commander," he said over the intercom. "I'm fine. Can you make certain that no one disturbs me for the next hour or so?"

"Yes, sir," she said verbally but asked with her mind, _'Do you need my assistance, adun?'_

He responded to her psychically. _'I'm fine, aduna. I'm sorry for alarming you.'_

'_Of course, beloved,'_ she mentally said then turned her attention elsewhere.

The captain reached into the appliance, pulled out an ice pack and tossed it across the room to his friend.

"Thanks, Jay."

Tynen simply grunted at him. "Don't mention it. Now, tell me who the other conspirators are."

His friend narrowed his eyes at the captain. "I don't mind telling you their names, Jay, but why do they matter to you?"

He shot his friend an incredulous look. "Don't you want me to help you take them out?"

"What?" Gretsky shrieked. "I wouldn't do that to you, buddy! You made it quite clear that you were done with this life. Why would I try to drag you back into it?"

"Jack," he said, rolling his eyes. "What in the hell did you think you were doing when you had me take out Tevik for you?"

"Jay, I wanted you take the guy down when he came on too strong with your lady and use their ritual mating combat to do it. Since the microbes would have pushed him to the point of no return, you would have been completely justified in terminating him. Thus, you'd have taken care of the Section's problem and benefitted from the fact that your bond with V'Lar would have been strengthened by your victory over the guy. Anyway, it all would have been untraceable except for the fact you managed to space the guy somehow!"

"I didn't space him!" Tynen snapped.

"You did, too, Jay!" Gretsky snapped back. "Weird shit always happened around you! Remember that time when you managed to drop thirty feet to bushwhack those Orion pirates on T'Vam? You were unharmed; in fact, you managed to take on five of those guys without a scratch!"

The captain shot an unsure glare at the other man. "I don't remember any of that."

"It happened, Jay! I was there!"

Tynen hesitated momentarily before he decided to ask a question of his own. "How did you ever find out all that stuff about Vulcan mating rituals, Jack? They aren't really known for sharing all that much."

Jack shrugged. "Not a problem, Jay. I merely asked a Romulan I knew."

"You what?"

"I asked a Romulan. You know, they've only been separated from the Vulcans by only two thousand years or so. They go through the same mating rituals. They're just more open about it, particularly after they drink several pints of Romulan ale."

A slack-jawed Tynen regarded his friend as Jack continued his explanation. "Anyway, when you nearly died saving V'Lar and we stole the recordings from McKinley Station where you blurted out that stuff about killing the Tal Shiar operative during your last mission—"

"What?" Tynen exclaimed, cutting Jack off. "You guys were the ones who kept me from being exposed?"

Jack sighed. "Of course, buddy. The director himself wanted us to bail you out. You know, he always had a soft spot for you. Well, as I was saying, he was the one who put two and two together."

"Put what together, exactly, Jack?"

"Why, he knew you had the hots for your sexy first officer, of course!"

It was times like this that Tynen was grateful for the dark complexion of his skin because if he'd been Caucasian, he knew his blush would have been plain to see. "Was it that obvious?"

"Hey, buddy…it's me you're talking to here!" his friend noted with a shake of his head. "You always had a thing for Vulcan women, pal. Remember, I was the one who told you about all those stories that Captain Reed had passed down about T'Pol? You couldn't get enough of those stories, particularly the one when she'd been infected by the microbe and tried to crawl into Reed's spacesuit with him."

A stunned Tynen flopped down onto the couch next to the current Section operative. "You know, I'd forgotten that you were the one who'd told me those stories."

Jack snickered. "Don't feel so bad, buddy. Anyway, although the science geeks back at HQ thought no one would figure out the microbe thing, I knew you'd do it."

Jason shot a knowing glance at him. "How many credits did you wager on me?"

"Ten thousand. And they gave me ten to one odds, so I'm due a hundred thousand when I get back."

"Glad to be of service, Jack," he grumbled.

Gretsky smiled slyly at him. "Oh, don't be like that, Jay. Besides, I still got more information to pass along to you." Then his face grew sober. "Though, you probably won't like most of it."

"Let me have it, Jack."

"Okay but remember, you asked for it. Let's see, now…oh, yeah! The other conspirators are the Klingon commandant of Rura Penthe and Lieutenant Valeris of the _Enterprise_. Her role was to gather incriminating evidence to help frame Kirk to the Klingons and to control the pair of henchmen who'd actually pull the triggers of the phasers that would've killed Gorkon."

Tynen nodded. "What are you going to do with the conspirators?"

"Not a damn thing," Gretsky said.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me. We're not going to do anything to them. The war with the Minbari has served to nip the entire conspiracy in the bud. Cartwright can't very well encourage a war against the Klingons when another race killed twenty-eight million Federation citizens and sentients from other governments who were under our protection on Regulus and attacked those very same Klingons, can he? Besides, West is dead, Valeris is stuck on one of the flagships of the Federation destined for Alliance Earth space, and Chang is going off to fight over there as well. However, there's something you need to know about your wife and her connection to the _Enterprise_."

The captain felt a tension headache beginning to form. "Spill it, Jack."

"Your wife's old man is the younger brother of Captain Spock's dad. That makes V'Lar and Spock cousins. Now, Valeris is Spock's current protégé. However, both Spock's legal ward, Lt. Commander Saavik, and your wife, are not, shall we say, very fond of Valeris."

"Great…just great!" Tynen snapped. _You know_, he fumed inwardly, _I really need to sit down with V'Lar and make her understand that surprises between a married couple are NOT good things!_ Then he glared at Jack and observed, "You know, if V'Lar finds out about Valeris, she'll probably want to do whatever it takes to get that snake away from her cousin."

"I know…but that probably wouldn't work. She won't have the evidence to convince Spock about what we know is true and it would only serve to drive the woman underground. Anyway, we'll leave it up to you to handle it any way you see fit."

"Me? Look, Jack, I'm not in the Section any more. They can't assign anything to me."

"We know, buddy, we know. We don't intend to assign anything to anyone who's going to Alliance Earth space."

Tynen shot a confused look at Gretsky. "The Section isn't sending anyone to their space?"

Jack shook his head. "Nope."

"How come?"

Gretsky shrugged. "The fleet will have Starfleet Intelligence on hand. Alliance Earth doesn't need Section 31 skulking about in the near future. Right now, it just needs our boy scouts like Kirk, Tapin, Sulu, and…you."

Tynen snorted loudly. "Me, a boy scout? Hardly."

"Jay," his friend observed as he gave the captain a warm look, "you're the most honorable man I've ever known." As Tynen fought to keep from choking up at Jack's heartfelt comment, the other man said, "Right now, the Section needs to get on top of what almost happened here in our space and determine how to neutralize the Romulan influence that helped support the conspiracy. As for Alliance Earth, Jay, according to our contacts with the Elder races, one of the more powerful ones, most likely the Organians or the Metrons, allowed the Alliance Earth humans and the Minbari to transverse the hyperspace channel and travel to the Beta Quadrant. They brought their war here and the Minbari have given us a reason to join forces with the Klingons. However, when we travel to Alliance Earth's sector, we'll likely come into contact with several of the Elder races on that side of the galaxy eons before we would have run into them in the natural course of things. Apparently, some of those races may consider us as a threat and decide to come after us. The Elder races on our side of the galaxy wanted us to be ready to deal with them in a hundred years or so. That's why they allowed the Minbari/Alliance Earth war to rear its ugly head here."

"So we're pawns in the Elder races' game?"

Jack frowned. "I don't think so. I think the Elders in our part of the galaxy are trying to help us prepare for future challenges. However, even though I don't think they're being malevolent in this regard, the news I have to pass along isn't very pleasant." Gretsky sighed deeply then said, "Remember when the Organians ended the Four Day War by saying the Empire and the Federation would become allies one day?"

"Yes."

"Well, the Elder races believe that day has come. However, to make the Klingons accept it, our experts on Klingon society believe there needs to be one great battle where scores of Klingons and Starfleet personnel die in a united cause deterring a determined, ruthless foe bent on genocide. It will be a battle where songs will be sung to honor those fallen warriors, both Federation and Klingon, who'll likely face hundreds of those over-sized Minbari ships in glorious battle." Jack then stared into his friend's eyes and gently placed his hand on Tynen's shoulder. "Considering the Minbari's response at Regulus, what do you think they'll do when they see the expeditionary force's arrival in the Alliance Earth system?"

Tynen's heart nearly seized up inside his chest. _No!_ his mind screamed. _No!_

"You know," Jack continued to speak lowly, "They wanted to make certain that the entire force wouldn't be lost. Kirk, Alcatha, Chang, and Kor are going to operate in Minbari space to try and keep some of their forces out of the Alliance Earth assault. Meanwhile, Tapin, Sulu, Kang and Koloth will take the heavier battle cruisers into Alliance Earth space along with an up-and- coming captain who's the master of the most powerful exploratory cruiser in known space and serves as a target for the 'racially pure' minded Minbari because of his marriage to a woman from another species."

The captain's gaze swerved toward the door to his ready room. He imagined he could see her seated in his chair, almost as if there was no physical barrier between them. Those heartless bastards were sending his ship, sending his crew…sending her…to be sacrificial lambs! And selfish fool that he'd been, he'd chosen not to send her away on the _Copernicus_ to a life of discovery and scientific accolades. No, he'd kept her by his side, so she could travel seventy thousand light years to lay down her life on the altar to the almighty Federation!

"Jack…" Tynen whispered, "Mendez…did he know?"

Gretsky exhaled heavily. "No. He only found out after Cartwright told him to assign your ship."

The flames of his anger nearly raged out of control then. He turned and glared dangerously at the Section 31 operative. "I need a favor from you, Jack."

"Name it, buddy."

"Don't touch Cartwright. Make certain nothing happens to him while I'm gone because I need a reason to bring both my ship and my wife back in one piece. Understand this, Jack. I want him alive. When I return to the Alpha Quadrant, I'll have one more sanction to carry out. Oh, tell the director this one's on the house."

"You've got it, pal. Now, would you mind doing me a favor?"

"Sure, Jack."

"I need you to look out for Rebecca and her ship in Alliance Earth space."

Tynen narrowed his eyes in confusion at his friend. "Jack, she isn't going. They're sending the _Nightingale_ not the _Dehner_."

"Actually, pal, the _Nightingale_ has a problem with its warp core, something about a few microfractures. Nothing dangerous, mind you, but something that certainly needs to be taken care of by the Corp of Engineers while she's in orbit over Regulus."

Tynen smirked at Gretsky. "Microfractures, huh?"

"So I hear."

"Why, Jack?"

The other man shrugged. "I guess you rubbed off on me, buddy. I never thought I was the settling-down type until they assigned me to train her. When I realized she was a good woman with a good heart, I knew the Section wasn't the life for her. So I gave her this assignment, hoping she'd be compromised and you didn't disappoint. I want her far away from the Section for a while; you taking her to Alliance Earth space may be just what the doctor ordered, so to speak." Then he smiled at the captain. "After I've tied up some loose ends and settled some old scores…maybe then I could retire and travel the galaxy with a certain lady doctor."

Tynen smiled at his friend. "Fine, Jack. I'll take care of her."

"Thanks, buddy." Gretsky stood up and Tynen got to his feet with him. "Well, I'd better go, Jay. I need to spend some time with Rebecca before you guys ship out in the morning."

Tynen nodded then reached out and drew his friend into a hug. "Jack, Cartwright said you'd gone rogue. They're out hunting you."

Jack chuckled and gently patted the captain on his back. "Don't worry about me, Jay. The Deltans are paying him a visit even as we speak. Tomorrow, it'll all be chalked up as a misunderstanding, particularly when he _knows_ we _know _everything."

"That's good to know," Tynen said. "Jack, before you go, do you want to meet V'Lar?"

His friend gave him a sad smile. "Normally, I would insist on it, buddy, but now's probably not the time. I really do feel badly that rat, Tevik, hurt her all because of us. But I want you to know, if she ever needs my help or if something happens to you, I'll be watching. I'll drop everything to make certain she's safe."

Jason pulled him in for another hug. "Thanks, Jack. I appreciate that. I want you to know the same goes for Rebecca."

The Section 31 operative nodded. "I know, buddy. I know."

Moments later, Tynen released his friend and the operative took several steps before he settled in the middle of the captain's office. "Well, I'll see you both when you return to the Alpha Quadrant, Jay. Just be careful when you're dealing with those Minbari, pal. Friends like you for a guy like me are hard to come by."

As Tynen waved goodbye, Gretsky grinned as he activated the _Valkyrie's_ intraship transporter mode with his waldo and faded from the captain's view almost like Alice of Wonderland's infamous Cheshire Cat.

#


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

_After Jack had gone, I strode out of my ready room and headed for the turbolift without saying a word to anyone, even though I felt V'Lar's eyes as they tracked me. Before I came here, I stopped by sickbay to order Shron to destroy all of the evidence he had on the microbes. However, I made him keep the formula for the pathogen on hand just in case we ever needed it to protect my wife. Better to be safe than sorry, I reasoned._

_So, here I sit, forced to cover the crimes of other men. I was an accessory to murder to protect the Federation. I benefitted from the act because it helped me forge a deep, abiding relationship with the woman I love. But worst of all, I feel cheated because it will be all for naught when she sacrifices her life along with the rest of my crew for a planet full of strangers seventy thousand light years from home._

_I just don't know if I'm capable of living with that._

_#_

At that very moment he'd finished his log entry, the door into their quarters swished open and she stood there in the portal like a vision. She entered the suite and crossed the floor to kneel by his side. "Something is troubling you, adun," she whispered.

He considered lying to her, telling her everything was fine. He couldn't bring himself to do it, though. He nodded to her, the motion barely perceptible.

She studied his face for a few seconds then said, "I detect through our bond that you believe that what you need to say to me is difficult for me to hear..."

"Yes," he whispered. "There is much we need to discuss, V'Lar. I just met with Jack Gretsky in my ready room."

Her right eyebrow rose nearly to her hairline. "Gretsky was on board our ship?"

He nodded. As she was about to ask him how, he cut her off. "It doesn't matter how he got on board, my love. What's important is what he told me." When she said nothing and nodded for him to continue, he sighed. "Jack said that you and Captain Spock are related."

She blinked twice at him before she answered. "That is true. My father is Spock's father's brother."

He glared at her then. "Why didn't you tell me that, V'Lar?"

She gave him the uncomfortable-to-most-races stare that Vulcans were infamous throughout the quadrant for. Then she said, "It never seemed to come up during any of our past conversations, Jason."

His eyebrow rose in response to her answer. Then he shook his head and smiled. "I suppose I should have known to ask you, aisha. Your people are known for your reticence in regards to private matters."

She gave him the stare again before she grudgingly admitted, "That is true. What else did Gretsky tell you?"

"Well…he told me more about the conspiracy that had involved Tevik. He hadn't been the only one interested in sabotaging your cousin's and Chancellor Gorkon's efforts to pursue peace between the Klingons and the Federation. What I'm about to tell you cannot go beyond this room, love, all right?"

She nodded. "Yes, my husband," she said solemnly.

"Several conspirators wanted to start a war between the Klingons and us. Admiral Cartwright, General Chang, and the Romulan Ambassador were the ringleaders. Your cousin's protégé, Valeris, was one of their main operatives."

At that very moment, she suddenly lost all of her control and the flames of her anger were terrible to behold. "Damn that harlot to hell!" she snapped, her voice harder than he'd ever heard it before.

In his mind's eye, he saw flashes of a woman who looked superficially like his wife except for the fact she was dressed in armor and brandished a sword, screaming out a battle cry on a wind-swept desert, standing in the midst of absolute carnage, surrounded by the fallen and the slain.

"Valeris must pay the ultimate price for her betrayal of my cousin!" his wife growled.

"No!" he snapped, grabbing hold of both her shoulders.

She narrowed her eyes at him then, as if she prepared to physically challenge him. However, he met her heated gaze with his own. "V'Lar, you can't kill her!"

"Why not?"

"Because it'll hurt you more than it would her. If she's dead, her pain is over. Yours will last a lifetime, though. Trust me."

When his words finally registered in her mind, she gasped and her eyes flew open. "J-jason," she stammered.

He gently cupped her cheek in the palm of his hand. "Have you returned to me, aduna?"

She nodded sullenly. "Adun, I beg your forgiveness."

He shook his head. "There is nothing to forgive, beloved. I understand your…distress regarding Valeris. However, we don't have concrete evidence against her. Let's think about how we can approach the problem, though. I don't like having her anywhere near your cousin even though the conspiracy is over now due to the war against the Minbari."

"All right, Jason," she said.

"V'Lar," he asked, "who was the woman I saw in your mind?"

Her eyes searched his for several moments before she decided to tell him. "She was Vanar. She was an ancient warrior princess whose family ruled ShiKahr five thousand years ago. She is also my ancestor."

He stared at her then. "Okay. So why did I sense her presence in your mind?"

"When I passed the rites of my _kahs-wan_, my Vulcan maturity test, the tradition of the women in my family called for me to meld with the _katra_ of Vanar. By doing so, the birth rite of our family is maintained unbroken from time immemorial."

"So…let me get this straight," he stated. "You're the descendent of an ancient Vulcan warrior princess?"

"Yes."

"And…I don't know, it's just a wild guess on my part...you didn't happen to retain some of her knowledge and experiences in martial arts and other…things when you melded with her _katra_, right?"

She appeared to be deep in thought for a moment before she said, "Perhaps...I did. It is a distinct possibility."

A sense of foreboding gripped him then. "Although you appear to be fine now, moments ago, you were…dare I say, angry."

A look of shame clouded over her face. "Yes."

"May I ask why?"

She nodded and sighed heavily before she began to speak. "My people have been known to lose our control on occasion. At times, certain illnesses can rip away our control. On rare occasions, threats against the life or well-being of our close relations can lead to a lapse of control. In the case of a life mate, though, loss of control is accepted by all in our society. For instance, if you were badly injured or in critical condition, nothing would stand against me for long as I attempted to reach your side; nothing, Jason…no distance, no obstacle, no person. If anything or anyone attempted to interfere, I would remove that obstacle mercilessly without any hesitation or reservation."

_Well,_ he mused_, I guess that means I should place all the swords under lock and key._ Inwardly, he understood where she was coming from, considering how he reacted when he saw Tevik straddling her unresponsive body. However, as the captain and first officer of a starship, they were both expendable; their crew and their ship were not.

"Aisha," he said, "I feel the same way about you. However, I want you to promise me that if it comes down to saving the ship and our crew over me, you'll do it. Please promise me that, my love."

She gave him that uncomfortable Vulcan stare once again before she said, "I will promise to do so only on the condition that you shall promise to do the same as to me."

Although it made him almost want to throw up, he nodded reluctantly. "I promise, V'Lar."

"Then I promise to do so as well, Jason Tynen."

He sighed deeply and gently gripped her shoulder. "Thank you, my wife. Now I must beg your forgiveness, V'Lar. I'm afraid that my love for you kept me from letting you go with the _Copernicus_ and because of me, I fear you will perish with most of the expeditionary force when we face the Minbari."

She cupped his cheek in the palm of her hand, leaned forward and softly pressed her forehead against his. "Possessing such fear is illogical, my husband. I would never leave you and you cannot 'let' me go. We are life mates, forever together, never parted." Then she gently kissed his lips and commanded, "Tell me exactly what troubles you."

"All right," he breathed. "Jack revealed that Starfleet expects the Minbari to attack Alliance Earth's system with overwhelming force. For some reason, the Minbari don't want to bring an end to the slaughter and are driven to eradicate the humans there. The brass believes that sending the expeditionary force to Alliance Earth to hold the line in space while we install high grade planetary shields and ground-based, as well as, orbital defenses will keep the Minbari from destroying Alliance Earth. However, casualties in space will be extremely high. They think that if both Starfleet and the Klingon Defense Force lose nearly all of the expeditionary force's ships in defense of Alliance Earth, it will strengthen the ties between us and the Klingons."

She listened attentively to all that he'd said and simply stared at him, cool, calm and collected.

"Don't you see, V'Lar? The _Valkyrie_, our crew…you, to Starfleet you're all nothing but sacrificial lambs being sent to the slaughter!"

When she maintained her silence and continued to lock her gaze onto his, something inside him just…snapped. "V'Lar, damn it, say something! Tell me what you're feeling!"

"Jason," she answered calmly, "tell me…what am I supposed to 'feel?'"

He stared at her, gasping when he realized what he'd done. "I-I'm so sorry, aisha," he stammered. "I know you don't experience emotions like I do. It was wrong of me to have such an expectation of you. It's just that, knowing you may die when we face the Minbari…I just…it just…" His voice trailed off; he couldn't find the words to express his worst fear.

"Ultimately, beloved, life is a game we are all destined to lose," she noted. "All we can do, now that we are bonded, is to face life's challenges together."

He caressed her cheek with his outstretched fingers. "I still think you would have been better off without me, aduna."

A smirk almost managed to form on her exquisite face. "Now, my husband, it is you whose emotions have gotten the best of them. Jason, before you gave me the gift of allowing me to share your life with you, I was like a cursed princess kept inside a castle high, waiting for a champion's kiss to bring me back to life. Now that I have found you, I cannot even conceive of living life without you. I simply do not believe another person exists who can satisfy my very _katra_ in the manner that you do, Jason Tynen."

Her deep love for him was his undoing. He sobbed as he drew her into a fierce hug. "I love you so much, V'Lar!" he cried.

She shuddered in his arms. "I love thee more than life itself," she whispered, her confession sounding like a prayer.

Minutes later, after he regained his composure, she kissed him deeply, her tender salute a balm to his very soul. When their lips parted, she whispered, "We shall boldly proceed to Alliance Earth space. We shall prepare our ship and drill our crew to meet the challenges that come our way. And no matter our fate, we shall never be parted, my husband. Now…come," she said simply as she stood up, took him by the hand, drew him to his feet and led him to their bedroom.

#

Tynen wakened slowly to find that his arms and legs were intertwined with his wife's.

Last night, as they kissed, she melded their minds together, taking his emotions, the overpowering need for her, her tremendous desire for him, and intensified them. The passion, the awe, and the ardor they had for each other rocked them both in its sincerity. Their bond wove itself into a tapestry of their thoughts and emotions, culminating in a mating of their minds, bodies, and spirits. They were one in every way that mattered.

The life mates had lost themselves in each other several times that night. Now, Tynen sensed the serenity of her mind while she slept. It felt wonderful and he smiled.

That woke V'Lar up.

Her eyes fluttered open. Then she rested her chin on the back of her hand, gently placing it on his chest. _Dear God,_ he breathed inwardly. His wife was gloriously naked and her voluptuous body was pressed tightly against him! He simply stared at her, completely buffaloed by the fact that this exotic and absolutely stunning creature was married to him.

Then, all of a sudden, like the rays of the sun peeking out from behind a cloud, a tiny smile formed on her pouty lips. In response, he grinned as the emotions that danced between them made up for any of the superficial differences regarding the expressions on their supremely satisfied faces.

#

_I reflected upon the miracle that is V'Lar while we prepared to greet the day. _

_I sent her ahead to the bridge while I finished dressing. Then, just as I stepped out of our quarters, I inadvertently overheard two of my crewmen discussing our impending journey to Alliance Earth space. They apparently hadn't seen me because one of them had wondered if we were going on a one way trip to oblivion._

"_I don't think so," said the other. "I mean, if we were, the captain would have left both his antique sound system and Commander V'Lar behind, now wouldn't he?"_

_As they continued down the corridor, I considered what that last crewman had said. Then I turned right around, reentered my quarters and activated my personal log._

_That crewman was right. If I really had no hope that we'd make it, I'd never risk my stereo system. It's irreplaceable…one of a kind._

_Just like my wife. _

#

"Computer," he commanded. "Erase my entire personal log recorded today."

As the computer signaled the completion of its task, he turned and strode purposefully out of the room.

#

Moments later, Captain Tynen exited the turbolift onto his bridge. Almost immediately, Commander V'Lar relinquished the captain's chair to him and took her place by his side in her seat.

Currently, the bridge was manned by the Alpha shift. Tynen cleared his throat and said, "V'Lar…report."

"All systems are normal, captain," she said in her smooth monotone. "However, we did have a last minute transfer, sir. We sent one of our engineering warrant officers to the _Challenger_ in exchange for Lt. Frost."

"Frost! Wasn't she the young officer who spoke to us after her ship had been attacked by the Minbari?"

"Yes, sir. I intend to assign her to operations."

Tynen almost felt sorry for the poor woman; however he knew that V'Lar would be a good teacher for young Frost and toughen her up a bit. "Very well, we'll welcome her on board once we proceed at warp speed. What is the current status of the task force?"

"Sir, the _Mako_, the _Jezar_, the _Echo_, and the _T'Pol_ are ready to leave orbit and form up on the _Valkyrie_. The Corps of Engineers have reported that the _Nightingale _cannot proceed to the rendezvous due to problems with her warp core. Accordingly, the _Elizabeth Dehner_ has been assigned in the _Nightingale's_ place."

Although he knew how that little switch had been finessed, he decided to keep that bit of information to himself. "Well, the more the merrier, commander."

"Yes, sir," she purred. "The Klingon flotilla is standing by to form on us when you give the word, captain."

He smiled at his wife and turned slowly to regard each and every one of his bridge crew with a look of gratitude. "Well, let us start this journey so we can accomplish our mission and all come home safe and sound."

"Aye, aye, sir!" a grinning Lt. Vox shouted. "Course laid in, captain!"

"Ensign Rager!" the captain boomed.

"Aye, sir?"

"The word is given! Prepare to take us out of orbit."

"Aye, sir!" the Baton Rouge native barked as she pressed a button on her console.

"Engage, Mister Rager."

"Leaving orbit, captain."

"All task force vessels have left orbit, sir, and have formed on the _Valkyrie_," Mazan reported.

'_Goodbye, Regulus,'_ he and his wife said through their shared bond while he said out loud, "Ahead warp factor six, Lanei," and watched the starfield streak toward him through the bridge's main viewscreen.

_The End_


End file.
